DirecTV said it added 444,000 net subs in Q4, and 1.7 million for all of 2004. DirecTV ended 2004 with 13.94 million subs.

On the financial front, DirecTV notched $3.36 billion in revenue in the quarter, up 22 percent from a year ago. That was enough to avoid a net loss of $283 million, down slightly from a net loss of $310 million a year earlier. The Q4 loss was driven by a $217 million pre-tax charge for the expected sales of Hughes Network Systems and a $45 million pre-tax charge for the ongoing shutdown of DirecTV Latin America's Mexico operations.