Dish Network Results Top Expectations Despite Pay-TV Subscriber Losses

By Chelsey Dulaney 

Dish Network Corp. said Wednesday that its pay-TV subscriber losses accelerated in the second quarter, though profit and revenue topped Wall Street expectations.

Dish said it lost 81,000 net pay-TV subscribers in the quarter, compared to a loss of 44,000 a year earlier.

For the past few quarters, Dish has suffered from its programming contract disputes with Time Warner Inc.'s Turner networks and 21st Century Fox's Fox News. Meanwhile, the company has focused on acquiring high-quality video customers with better credit scores, who are willing to pay more for better products and are less likely to disconnect.

The results comes as the pay TV industry has been hurt by competition and new online video offerings.

At the end of the second quarter, Dish's pay-TV service had 13.93 million subscribers, down about 1% from 14.05 million a year earlier. Average monthly revenue per subscriber rose to $87.91 from $84.15 a year earlier. Its churn rate, or the rate at which subscribers canceled service, grew to 1.71% from 1.66% a year ago.

Overall, Dish posted a profit of $324 million, or 70 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $213 million, or 46 cents a share.

Revenue grew to $3.83 billion from $3.69 billion a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 45 cents a share on revenue of $3.79 billion.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at [e-mail]

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