Dish Network Swings to Profit

By Imani Moise 

Dish Network Corp. swung to a profit in the fourth quarter as the company added and retained more subscribers.

The satellite-television provider added about 694,000 gross paid subscribers during the quarter ended in December, compared with about 661,000 gross in the year-ago quarter. Net subscribers increased by 28,000 during the quarter, compared with a loss of 12,000 subscribers last year.

Pay-TV subscribers include customers of Dish's Sling branded service which helps lure cord cutters who prefer internet-based streaming services over traditional cable back to the company.

Pay-TV subscriber churn, the rate at which subscribers leave the service, rose to 1.71% for the year compared with from 1.59% in 2015 because of marketing and discounts from competitors as well as cord-cutting.

Over all Dish reported a profit of $342.7 million, or 70 cents a share, compared with a loss of $125.3 million, or 27 cents a year earlier.

Revenue dropped 1.6% to $3.72 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 66 cents on $3.76 billion in revenue.

Shares, inactive premarket, closed at $62.82 and have risen 12% over the past three months.

Write to Imani Moise at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2017 07:18 ET (12:18 GMT)

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