Dish Drops 12K Subscribers in Q3

Dish Network said it lost about 12,000 pay TV customers in the third quarter, down from a gain of about 35,000 net new customers in the same period last year, as gross additions declined and churn rose slightly.

Dish ended the period with 14.04 million customers. Revenue for the period rose 4.8% to $3.68 billion from $3.51 billion. Subscriber-related revenue increased 5.3% to $3.65 billion from $3.46 billion a year ago.

Net income attributable to Dish Network totaled $146 million for the quarter, compared to $315 million last year and diluted earnings per share were 31 cents, compared to 68 cents during the same period in 2013.

Pay-TV ARPU for the third quarter totaled $84.39, up from $80.98 a year ago and subscriber churn increased slightly to 1.67% versus 1.66% for third quarter 2013.

Gross new subscriber additions in the period fell to 691,000 from 734,000 in the same period last year.

The satellite company added about 28,000 net broadband subscribers in the third quarter, bringing its broadband subscriber base to approximately 553,000. Dish added approximately 75,000 net broadband subscribers in the third quarter 2013.

Dish has scheduled a conference call with analysts at noon today to discuss results.