944868--2/27/2009--DIRECTV_GROUP

related topics

{capital, credit, financial}

{financial, litigation, operation}

{product, candidate, development}

{product, market, service}

{cost, operation, labor}

{operation, international, foreign}

{condition, economic, financial}

{property, intellectual, protect}

{competitive, industry, competition}

{stock, price, operating}

{loss, insurance, financial}

{personnel, key, retain}

We compete with other MVPDs, some of whom have greater resources than we do and levels of competition are increasing. Emerging digital media competition could materially adversely affect us. We depend on others to produce programming and programming costs are increasing. Our subscriber acquisition costs could materially increase. Increased subscriber churn or subscriber upgrade and retention costs could materially adversely affect our financial performance. Results are impacted by the effect of, and changes in, United States and Latin America economic conditions and weakening economic conditions may reduce subscriber spending and our rate of growth of subscriber additions and may increase subscriber churn. DTVLA is subject to various additional risks associated with doing business internationally, which include political instability, economic instability, and foreign currency exchange rate volatility. Our ability to keep pace with technological developments is uncertain. Our business relies on intellectual property, some of which is owned by third parties, and we may inadvertently infringe patents and proprietary rights of others. Our principal stockholder has significant influence over our management and over actions requiring stockholder approval and its interests may differ from ours. We rely on key personnel Construction or launch delays on satellites could materially adversely affect our revenues and earnings. Our satellites are subject to significant launch and operational risks. The cost of commercial insurance coverage on our satellites or the loss of a satellite that is not insured could materially adversely affect our earnings. We depend on the Communications Act for access to cable-affiliated programming and changes impacting that access could materially adversely affect us. Carriage requirements may negatively affect our ability to deliver local broadcast stations, as well as other aspects of our business. Satellite programming signals have been stolen and may be stolen in the future, which could result in lost revenues and would cause us to incur incremental operating costs that do not result in subscriber acquisition. The ability to maintain FCC licenses and other regulatory approvals is critical to our business. We face risks arising from the outcome of various legal proceedings. We control a substantial portion of interaction with our customers and we may not be as efficient or effective as our outsourced providers resulting in higher costs. We face risks arising from possible union legislation in the United States. We may not be able to obtain or retain certain foreign regulatory approvals. We may face other risks described from time to time in periodic reports filed by us with the SEC.

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944868--2/27/2009--DIRECTV_GROUP_INC