Subscriber Losses Outweigh Profit at Dish -- WSJ

By Anne Steele 

Dish Network Corp. reported much better-than-expected earnings growth in the most recent quarter, though revenue grew less than anticipated and it had lost subscribers.

During the period ended June 30, Dish added about 527,000 paid subscribers, compared with about 638,000 in the year-ago quarter. Net subscribers declined 281,000 in the second quarter, compared with an 81,000-subscriber loss last year.

Over all, the company reported a profit of $410 million, or 88 cents a share, up from $324 million, or 70 cents, a year ago. Revenue edged 0.3% higher to $3.84 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had anticipated 72 cents a share on $3.85 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 quarter last year. The company includes subscriptions to its Sling TV streaming service in its total pay-TV metrics.

Pay-TV subscriber churn, meanwhile, increased to 1.96% from 1.71% a year earlier.

"Our pay-TV churn rate continues to be adversely affected by increased competitive pressures, including aggressive marketing, bundled discount offers combining broadband, video and/or wireless services, and other discounted promotional offers, as well as cord-cutting," the company said in a filing.

Dish lost roughly 15,000 net broadband subscribers, bringing its total broadband base to about 613,000.

Offsetting the lost subscribers were lower expenses, the satellite-TV provider said. Customer-acquisition costs fell by 13%, Dish said, and it reported significant declines in equipment, transmission and other subscriber-related expenses.

Shares of Dish Network fell 3.2% to $50.31.

Write to Anne Steele at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 22, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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