Dish Network 4Q Net Up 24%; Subscribership Drops Again
Dish Network Corp.'s
Dish faces escalating pressure to devise a new survival strategy in the face of tough competition not only from
Dish, the nation's second-largest satellite-TV provider behind DirecTV, posted net income of
Revenue increased 1% to
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of
The company lost 102,000 net subscribers during the quarter, ending the period with about 13.7 million subscribers. That marks the third straight quarterly decline for
And it's a contrast to DirecTV, which added 301,000 net subscribers in the fourth quarter, bringing its total U.S. susbscribership to 17.6 million.
Dish focuses on the low-end consumer, who is getting squeezed by the continuing economic decline. DirecTV has been able to better weather the storm because its customers are less vulnerable and because it had a quicker rollout of high-definition programming and sports packages.
Satellite and cable providers may be hurt by the renegotiation of copyright licenses for TV that are expected to be considered by Congress this year. Part of the decades-old license pact expires in December, and some lawmakers are calling for an overhaul, including eliminating licenses that give cable and satellite operators the right to broadcast copyrighted works.
Satellite mogul Charles Ergen, who controls
Dish's shares closed Friday at
