REUTERS: AT&T Inc pulled its financial forecast for the year on Wednesday as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic clouded its view for the foreseeable future.
AT&T said the pandemic reduced earnings by 5 cents per share in the first quarter. A severe blow to advertising sales, due to the postponement of live sports such as college basketball's March Madness and lower wireless equipment sales, led to a US$600 million decline in revenue. AT&T was able to sign up more customers despite shutting down more than 40per cent of its retail stores and reported 0.86per cent in postpaid phone churn, an improvement over last year's churn of 1.07per cent.AT&T lost 897,000 so-called premium TV subscribers, which includes its satellite TV provider DirecTV and a small number of U-Verse users, as more consumers cut cords amid the pandemic.