UPDATE 5-AT & T satellite TV number drawer, stocks fall
(Adds Breakingviews link, update stock price)
24. increased. (Reuters) – AT & T Inc's quarterly earnings for the last quarter rose less than expected, held back by its declining satellite TV business, and shipped its shares down more than 6 percent.
The second largest US wireless carrier has reduced its dependence on the phone industry with its acquisition of Time Warner of $ 85 billion this year, but it is struggling to grow in the television market because satellite operations continue to ACP customers have not attracted many subscribers as analysts had hoped.
AT & T lost more satellite TV customers than Wall Street, expected in the third quarter, sending a net 359,000 subscribers as viewers move to services like Netflix Inc and Hulu. It lost 251[ads1],000 in the same period last year.
Wall Street analysts expect AT & T to discard 245,000 satellite subscribers, according to research firm FactSet.
However, DirecTV is now the company's "over-the-top" streaming video service launched to attract viewers who had dropped more expensive satellite TV services, leaving only 49,000 online subscribers in the quarter, much lower than 296,000 in addition to last year. Analysts had expected 287,000 net new customers, according to FactSet.
"Satellite TV subscriber tapes accelerate while over-the-top subscription growth has stopped," said Walter Piecyk, an analyst with BTIG Research.
AT & T has the pair Feedback on offer to DirecTV. Now to focus on achieving profitability, executives said at a conference call to discuss earnings.
"What we are after are customers who are very committed to finding the product convincing and using it a lot," said AT & T Communications Chief Executive John Donovan during the conversation. "It will lend 1/8DirecTV now 3/8 against being able to be supplemented with an ad model over time."
In response to an analyst's question about the pay-TV business's contribution to a recovery in the company's entertainment group, Donovan corrected the analyst and said that the recovery would come from the group's broadband business, which means that it does not come from the video company that includes DirecTV.
AT & T shares were down 6.1 percent at $ 31.01 early on Wednesday afternoon.
TELEPHONES OPP [19659003] AT & T received a net 69,000 subscribers in the US who pay a monthly bill, compared to analysts' estimates on a net drop of 22,000 subscribers, according to research firm FactSet.
Wall Street analysts look at the so-called "postpaid" subscriber figure because these customers pay a monthly bill and are more valuable to the company.
The new WarnerMedia segment, which includes Turner and premium TV channel HBO, reported revenue of $ 8.2 bi in the quarter.
AT & T terminated its acquisition of Time Warner on June 14 after winning a court of law against the US Department of Justice, claiming that AT & T-eid DirecTV would use Time Warner content to increase its cost
WarnerMedia has Recently announced that it will introduce a new subscription video service at the end of the year.
An American appeal court said last week that it will hear oral arguments on 6 December for the Ministry of Justice's appeal against the merger. by 2019, anchored by HBO. Within a year, the service will also include original content, John Stankey, CEO of WarnerMedia, told former Reuters.
The third quarter result is due to AT & T increasing to 4.7 billion, or 65 cents per share, from $ 3.0 billion, or 49 cents per share the previous year.
Excluding individual items, the company achieved 90 cents per share, analysts' estimates of 94 cents per share are missing, according to Refinitive data.
Total revenues increased by 15.3 percent to $ 45.74 billion. analysts' expectation of $ 45.65 billion.
(Reporting of Sheila Dang in New York and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru Editing Bill Rigby and Nick Zieminski)
