Dish Loses Another 129,000 Traditional TV Subscribers Dish continues to bleed traditional TV subscribers, but also continues to see growth in the company's Sling TV streaming video service. According to Dish's latest earnings report, the company lost 145,000 customers in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands due to recent hurricane damage. Dish doesn't specifically break down Sling TV additions, but including the streaming video service -- the company saw an overall net gain of 16,000 video subscribers overall.

Granted, the Sling TV subscribers Dish is adding pay significantly less money per month than the traditional Dish satellite TV customers they're replacing, resulting in a lot of head shaking by Wall Street analysts about the fate of traditional satellite TV. "Truth be told, the traditional satellite T losses in the quarter (adjusted for hurricane impact in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) were not quite as bad as feared," said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett. "But the accumulated damage of Dish’s ongoing subscriber losses have become impossible to hide." Moffett was quick to point out that with hurricane-related losses factored out, Dish’s core satellite business is shrinking at a rate of 8.4% per year, with revenue down 4.3% and EBITDA declining by 9.7% during that same period. Dish is having success in that its Sling TV service now has more than 2 million subscribers, but those users aren't paying enough money to offset the losses. That competition is good for consumers, but not really for Dish's bottom line. "The wheels are officially coming off the satellite business," insists Moffett. "And we’ve now seen Sling TV contribute to the top and bottom lines long enough to make clear (as if anyone had any doubts anyway) that Sling TV is economically irrelevant. It is doing nothing to arrest Dish Network’s slide." Including both Dish satellite service and Sling TV, Dish's overall TV subscribers now sit at 13.2 million -- down from 13.6 million in the third quarter one year ago. Including both Dish satellite service and Sling TV, Dish's overall TV subscribers now sit at 13.2 million -- down from 13.6 million in the third quarter one year ago.







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Most recommended from 45 comments

Aaron2001

join:2016-12-31

united state 2 recommendations Aaron2001 Member They are about to loose me too

My current bill ON promotion with HBO

PS VUE package with all the channels I want

+ HBO fee About to jump the dish ship to streaming. The PS VUE package has all the channels my family wants ironicly. Total would be $60 with Tax and HBO included. I would also gain the ability to record shows and drive down cost if I choose to split costs and account share with others. Not to mention 5 devices with no bs cable boxes: Oh and Dish AnyWhere isn’t really anywhere, it’s annoying downloading separate apps for channels.