NEW YORK (Reuters) -DirecTV Group, the largest U.S. satellite TV provider, lost market share in the second quarter to Verizon Communications and AT&T, which cut prices on their pay TV services.
The company, whose shares fell more than 6 percent on Thursday, added 26,000 U.S. subscribers in the quarter. That is less than half the number that analysts expected.
Phone companies have gained traction with TV services. Last quarter, Verizon added 184,000 FiOS subscribers, while AT&T added 202,000 U-Verse TV customers.
"DirecTV is clearly feeling the pressure of telcos being aggressive," said Brean Murray analyst Todd Mitchell. DirecTV has never added less than 100,000 subscribers in a quarter, Mitchell said.
In Latin America, the company's biggest growth region, DirecTV added 472,000 subscribers. In Brazil, the company has been targeting the growing middle class with elaborate marketing campaigns to get more subscriptions.
DirecTV provided no details about how the upcoming National Football League season, which was nearly canceled because of a lockout, would affect its business. The company will hold a conference call later on Thursday.
The company usually attracts many new subscribers in the third quarter with its "NFL Sunday Ticket" package which allows viewers to watch football games outside their local markets.
DirecTV's net income rose to $701 million, or 91 cents per share, up from $543 million, or 42 cents per share, a year earlier. This beat Wall Street's average estimates of 85 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Its revenue rose to $6.6 billion, which beat the average analyst estimate of $6.5 billion.
Shares were trading 4 percent lower at $47.58.
(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew. Editing by Dave Zimmerman, Derek Caney and Robert MacMillan)
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