Dish Network posts sharply higher 2nd-quarter earnings despite lost customers

Dish Network posts sharply higher 2Q profit

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Satellite TV company Dish Network Corp. said Monday its second-quarter rose sharply as revenue grew, beating Wall Street’s expectations even while it lost subscribers to competition.

The company’s earnings attributable to common shareholders totaled $257 million, or 57 cents per share, up from earnings of $63.4 million, or 14 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $3.17 billion from $2.9 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 53 cents per share on revenue of $3.13 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Dish said it lost about net 19,000 subscribers during the quarter, ending with about 14.3 million. Competition has intensified in the pay-TV industry “with the rapid growth of fiber-based pay-TV services offered by telecommunications companies,” Dish said in a regulatory filing.

Last quarter, the Dish reported a 26 percent drop in net income as it stepped up promotions to reel in customers. The company has tried to position itself as the low-cost option in subscription TV, and its aggressive discounting snagged 237,000 net subscribers during the first three months of its fiscal year.

Programming offered over the Internet has also become more prevalent, giving customers even more options.

Shares climbed 6 cents to $20.90 in premarket trading.