Dish Stock Slumps After Quarterly Loss, Drop In Pay-TV Subscribers

Jill Goldsmith
·2 min read
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Dish swung to a $139 million loss last quarter from a $412 million profit the year before, the company said today, as pay-TV subscribers fell. The news pummeled the stock, which fell 20% this morning,

Net pay-TV subs decreased approximately 64,000 in for the third quarter ended in September, compared to a net increase of approximately 30,000 in the year-earlier period.

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The company closed the quarter with 8.84 million pay-TV subscribers, including 6.72 million Dish TV subscribers and 2.12 million Sling TV subscribers.

Cord-cutting has taken a bite out of traditional pay-TV subscriptions with the landscape increasingly unsettled as operators push back on programmers. Dish said Sept. 8 that Hearst Television had forced a channel black out on Dish TV, removing customer access to 37 local channels in 27 markets.

“DISH has been in discussions with Hearst for months working to reach an agreement to keep its channels on air for customers. Instead, Hearst is demanding tens of millions of dollars in rate increases that would affect customers, while it devalues its product by making programming available elsewhere, even as viewership declines,” the company said.

The decline in linear is one reason Dish is working on a major expansion in wireless. Retail wireless net subscribers decreased by approximately 225,000 in the third quarter, compared to a net increase of 1,000 in the year-ago quarter. It closed the quarter with 7.5 million retail wireless subscribers.

Dish also said today that its longtime CEO Erik Carlson is stepping down as part of a planned merger with satellite operator EchoStar, both owned by Charlie Ergen. The all-stock merger of the two public companies was announced in August. It combines Dish Network’s satellite technology, streaming services and nationwide 5G network with EchoStar’s satellite communications solutions, in what the company said will be   “a global leader in terrestrial and non-terrestrial wireless connectivity.”

Dish shares are down 20% at about $4.39.

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