Dish Network reported that it lost pay TV 13,000 subscribers in the third quarter, but that profits increased.
The company finished the quarter with 10.98 million pay TV subscribers, down from 10.99 million at the end of the second quarter. It had 8.42 million Dish TV subs, down from 8.55 million, but it grew its streaming Sling TV subscribers to 2.56 million, up from 2.44 million.
A year ago, during the pandemic. Dish reported an increase of 116,000 subscribers. At the end of the third quarter of 2020, Dish had 11.42 million pay TV subscribers. It had 8.96 million Dish TV subscribers and 2.46 million Sling subscribers.
Dish last month announced a $5 a month price increase across most of its linear satellite TV tiers.
Tegna, which has stations in 53 markets, has been blacked out on Dish since October. Dish is also airing Sinclair’s stations on a series of short-term extensions, so an even larger blackout is possible.
Net income was $557 million, or 88 cents a share, up 10% from $505 million, or 86 cents a share a year ago.
Revenue fell to $4.34 billion from $4.53 billion a year ago.
Dish said it had lost 121,000 retail wireless subscribers to finish the quarter with 8.77 million subs.
