DISH DISH Network Corporation

   (FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 11/10/15) 
   By Ezequiel Minaya and Shalini Ramachbyran 

Dish Network Corp. said Monday that its pay-TV subscriber losses accelerated in the third quarter, although its profit topped Wall Street expectations.

Dish said it lost 23,000 net pay-TV subscribers in the quarter, compared with a loss of 12,000 a year earlier.

Because Dish reports a combined number for its Sling TV and satellite TV customers, its results offer little clarity on how fast the $20-a-month Sling TV streaming service is growing or how quickly the traditional business is declining. Wells Fargo and Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson LLC pegged Sling TV additions in the 150,000 range, with satellite TV drop-offs exceeding 170,000.

On a conference call with analysts, Dish Chief Executive Charlie Ergen expressed optimism that Sling TV additions will eventually offset satellite TV's decline. "We hope that our subscriber counts grow positive in the future as opposed to negative," Mr. Ergen said.

Industrywide, traditional pay-TV's net losses accelerated in the third quarter to 357,000 customers from 184,000 in the year-ago period, according to MoffettNathanson. The results are unlikely to calm investors' fears after some media companies lowered their profit forecasts and admitted pressure on their lucrative television businesses in recent quarters.

Mr. Ergen on Monday highlighted Sling TV as a way for media companies that are worried about cord-cutting to "put the genie back in the bottle" by licensing content to a traditional pay-TV partner instead of Netflix and its ilk.

At the end of the third quarter, Dish's pay-TV service had 13.909 million subscribers, down about 1% from 14.041 million a year earlier. MoffettNathanson estimated that Sling TV had about 394,000 subscribers at the end of the quarter.

Average monthly revenue per subscriber rose to $86.33 from $84.39 a year earlier. Its churn rate, or the rate at which subscribers canceled service, grew to 1.86% from 1.67% a year ago.

Overall, the company posted a profit of $196 million, or 42 cents a share, up from $146 million, or 31 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue inched up 1.4% to $3.73 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast per-share earnings at 39 cents a share on revenue of $3.79 billion.

Dish shares fell 1% to $63.09.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2015 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)

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