DirecTV Group Inc. Q3 2009 Earnings Conference Call

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2009-11-05 16:02:09.0

Tags: Set-top Box, Set-top, DirecTV Group Inc., Broadband, Earnings, SAC, Taxes, Tv & Home Theater, Free Trade, Personal Finance, Broadband Internet, Network Technology, Telecommunications, Financial Planning, Finance, Personal Technology, Networking, Seeking Alpha

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you. The question-and-session will be conducted electronically. (Operator Instructions). Our first question will come from Rick Greenfield with Pali Capital

Rick Greenfield – Pali Capital

Couple of questions here you mentioned all of these new initiatives for next year in terms of more advanced set top boxes, the surprise that is how you have been able to keep SAC as low as you have what is all these new boxes mean for and functionality mean for SAC next year, how should we think about that? And then just a financial question. In terms of cash taxes you certainly mentioned some benefits this year. What do we think about the overall rate of cash taxes since you are in the low 20s this year. What’s the right way to think about it as we head into 2010 just broad brush. Thanks.

Pat Doyle

Sure. Talking about SAC for next year obviously I guess on both as in on the tax question or right in the middle of our 2010 planning process. But I think we do feel like that we will be making probably a little bit more commitment into the home of products like the broadband connectivity and multi-revenue and we should have a slight upward pressure on SAC but also what help us on the revenue side as we mainly charge for the installation of those services. On taxes again that one is probably too early we’ve certainly benefited from the two stimulus bills that have given us the accelerated depreciation on equipment purchases over the last two years which we’ll pay back next year.

So it’ll be certainly higher than the low 20s, but it’s probably too early for us to really have a good range for you there.

Rick Greenfield – Pali Capital

And then on the ARPU side of the advanced set-tops, do you think you’ll be getting further the types of features you are adding. Do you think you’ve got a significant kind of ongoing ARPU bump in these boxes?

Pat Doyle

Yeah I think that there is a couple of things that happened there will probably add a monthly charge for kind of a whole home solution that would include multi-room viewing and broadband kind of activity so you will get a regular one and then we have seen on just kind of a limited basis that we have now and people that are connected to the broadband that they tend to apply more services and produce more revenue. And then again on the SACs I guess one thing to remember is we continue to bring down the cost of set top boxes and then we have also had just a great year on recovering and redeploying set top boxes and we expect that to continue to grow next year or so. We are certainly countervailing things that help us with keeping the kind of SAC where we have seen it lately.

 

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