DirecTV Group expects to add significantly in excess of 200,000 net new subscribers in the United States in the current quarter, Chief Executive Mike White said on Thursday.

The company is on course to have more than 19.1 million subscribers by year-end, closing in on Comcast Corp's shrinking leadership in the U.S. pay-TV sector, White said at DirecTV's Investor Day.

Comcast had 22.9 million video customers at the end of the third quarter.

DirecTV said it expects to have revenue of about $24 billion this year. Analysts' average forecast is $23.9 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company expects to generate about $3 per share in free cash flow this year, and post average revenue per user of $90.

The company forecast growth for its Latin American unit, saying it will have 8.7 million subscribers by year-end and revenue of $3.5 billion in 2010.

DirecTV has grown in recent years by focusing on high-end pay-TV customers and by offering exclusive sports content like the NFL Football Sunday Ticket.

In the last two quarters, DirecTV has been the only one of the major publicly traded cable and satellite TV providers to add video subscribers. According to SNL Kagan, overall U.S. pay TV numbers fell for two quarters in a row between April and September.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke and Liana Baker; editing by John Wallace)

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