As far as the rest of Dish's business goes, the company picked up an estimated 39,000 new subscribers in the fourth quarter -- an increase of around 11,000 versus last year. Those gains couldn't offset a slight decrease in annual revenue from subscribers ($14.26 billion versus $15.03 billion), or total revenue ($3.48 billion versus $3.75 billion).

All told, while Dish might be doing better with Sling TV than AT&T is with DirecTV Now, AT&T still leads the pack in terms of overall subscribers (25.1 million). But with a $1.2 billion profit thanks to tax benefits, Dish probably can breathe easy while it figures out how to boost those subscription numbers.