• by Wayne Friedman , November 8, 2007

DirecTV is getting some good traction with sales for its HD programming packages, with about half of its 1 million new subscribers taking its higher-priced service.

All this shot the company to an 18% increase in revenues to $4.33 billion in the third-quarter period. But overall costs pushed down profits by 14% to $319 million.

The company's net income was down 14% to $319 million. Earnings per share were $0.27 versus $0.30 a year ago. The satellite-distributed network added 240,000 net subscribers during the quarter. DirecTV also said that it had a lower "churn" rate-the rate at which customers drop the service. It went to 1.61%, down from last year's 1.8%.

Another key indicator did well-DirecTV's average revenue per subscriber, which climbed to $78.79 against $72.74 for the same period a year ago. This was due to higher-priced programming packages from HD channels and DVR services. DirecTV has been aggressive with HD this year, rolling out 100 high-definition channels.

Although DirecTV missed the earnings projections from Thomson Financial--coming in at 27 cents per share versus the expected 29 cent--investors liked the overall news. The stock price was up 2.5% to $26.78.