Not quite sure why they didn’t announce earlier, but results from AT&T’s first quarter in 2016 were quietly sent out after close of business yesterday. It’s not like they had anything to hide… the numbers were actually good! Let’s look at the best of the best:
Revenue was up 24% year over year. The other side of that is that last year they spent a lot of money on the DIRECTV deal so their numbers were artificially low. Still that’s awesome.
Free cash flow was up 17% year over year. Again, probably because of the DIRECTV deal, but I wish my free cash flow was up 17% for any reason, let me just say.
DIRECTV added 328k net subscribers. Some of these came from U-Verse; AT&T is actively trying to get U-verse customers to switch to DIRECTV to cut the cost involved in migrating its terrestrial service to something more modern. But no other provider can match these numbers, no matter where the subscriptions came from.
Broadband adds are up by 186k net and considering how important home broadband is, this is great news and should keep the company strong for a long time to come.
The numbers all look good and it really looks like both the former AT&T and the former DIRECTV groups are meshing together to help build revenues in a really meaningful way. Here at The Solid Signal Blog we tend to think more about technology than accounting, but if the company isn’t healthy enough to think about new technology, it isn’t going to happen. DIRECTV has always been a technology leader and one of the reasons it’s continued to grow while other companies continue to shrink is that users appreciate it. So, strong finances mean that we’ll keep getting new toys.
If you’re interested in far more details about the finances, and you’d like to read the reports for yourself, check out this link to AT&T’s investor site.
