Dish Profit Falls on Subscriber Losses -- WSJ

By Austen Hufford 

Dish Network Corp. on Wednesday reported revenue growth in the third quarter, as its acquisition costs decreased and its average monthly revenue per subscriber increased, but the satellite-television provider continued to lose subscribers.

Dish said added about 736,000 gross paid subscribers during the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with about 751,000 in the year-ago quarter. But net subscribers declined by 116,000 during the quarter, compared with a loss of 23,000 subscribers last year.

The company said it had fewer new paid subscribers because it had stricter customer-acquisition policies and an increased focus on acquiring higher-quality subscribers. It also faced increased competition in the quarter. The average acquisition cost per subscriber fell to $640 from $736, while the average monthly revenue per subscriber rose to $89.44 from $86.33.

In all, the company reported a profit of $307.4 million, or 64 cents a share, up from $196.5 million, or 42 cents, a year ago. Revenue edged up 0.3% to $3.75 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had anticipated earnings of 68 cents a share on $3.74 billion in revenue.

The company closed the quarter with roughly 13.6 million pay-TV subscribers, compared with 13.9 million at the end of the year-ago quarter. The company includes subscriptions to its Sling TV streaming service in its total pay-TV metrics.

Pay-TV subscriber churn, the rate at which subscribers leave the service, rose to 2.11% from 1.86% a year earlier because of marketing and discounts from competitors as well as cord-cutting, as some consumers drop television subscriptions in favor of streaming services. Dish also said it was more selective in offering retention credits.

Dish lost roughly 20,000 net broadband subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total broadband base to about 593,000.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2016 02:48 ET (07:48 GMT)

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