DirecTV’s profit nearly quadruples

Satellite television broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc. said Wednesday that its third-quarter profit nearly quadrupled, driven by higher revenue and a lower rate of customer defection.

Shares of the El Segundo company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., rose $1.13, or 5.2%, to $22.97.

Its earnings surged to $370 million, or 30 cents a share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, up from $95 million, or 7 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 13% to $3.67 billion.

The results surpassed Wall Street’s consensus estimates of 27 cents a share on revenue of $3.61 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

DirecTV added 165,000 net subscribers at its core U.S. unit in the period. The average monthly churn rate, a measurement of the pace of customer defection, edged lower to 1.8% from 1.89% last year.

Average monthly revenue per subscriber rose to $72.74 from $68.65.

Last year, DirecTV began targeting customers less likely to miss their monthly payments and more likely to purchase extra services such as high definition and pay-per-view broadcasts.