Soccer's brief moment in the sun led to a spike in Latin American subscribers that helped boost DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) profits up 33 percent to $543 million during the second quarter.
While the lion's share of new subscribers came from Brazil, Argentina and Colombia where 415,000 climbed on board, DirecTV also said it gained 100,000 U.S. subscribers. That number, though, was down from the 224,000 the company gained last year as many cable subscribers moved to satellite thanks to the digital transition.
Meanwhile, on the U.S. cable programming front, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) said that its fourth quarter revenue of $3.3 billion was relatively static but its profit was up 52 percent from $277 million to $420 million due to an increase in affiliate fees and improved advertising revenues.
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