DirecTV expects to report increased subscriber churn during the third quarter, as a result of a now-resolved dispute with Viacom, which left subscribers unable to watch Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and 15 other networks for 10 days in July, CEO Mike White said Thursday.
But White told analysts on DirecTV's earnings call that the company, which lost 52,000 net subscribers during the second quarter, expects to see its subscriber base grow during the second half of the year.
Promotions tied to its exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket package helped DirecTV gain a record 327,000 net subscribers during the third quarter of 2011. White said DirecTV expects the discounted pricing and ad campaigns tied toSunday Ticket will help it generate increased renewals for the subscription package during the third quarter. It began running a new commercial starring Deion Sanders and Eli Manning on Aug. 1.
DirecTV's subscriber growth has also been hurt by the number of AT&T and Verizon phone customers who have switched from bundles of phone and DirecTV programming packages to AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS programming packages, White said. The number of phone customers that are getting rid of landlines to rely solely on mobile phone subscriptions has also made it more difficult to sell DirecTV through telemarketing efforts, White added.
Also worth noting from the DirecTV earnings call:
White wouldn't discuss an FCC filing from DirecTV in which it asks the commission to force Comcast and Time Warner Cable to sell their stakes in Clearwire, or whether DirecTV would be interested in partnering with the WiMax provider. But the DirecTV chief said he has concerns about how satellite TV subscribers could be impacted by the spectrum and marketing deals that Verizon Wireless has struck with major cable MSOs. "I think it's as simple as our concerns bout the influence that cable has on limited broadband alternatives that consumers have access to and ensuring that there's free and fair competition so that customers that choose satellite aren't discriminated against in terms of their access to or the pricing they pay for broadband services," White said.
DirecTV is negotiating a distribution deal with CBS Corp. , which also owns Showtime Networks, and is "optimistic" that it will reach a fair agreement, White said.
White wouldn't discuss whether DirecTV will agree to carry the regional sports networks that Time Warner Cable will launch later this year in Los Angeles, but expressed concerns about the rising costs for sports programming. "We probably can't afford to do everything that everybody would like us to do in sports, so we will be disciplined. And I think we'll just have to see," White said.
