Dish Network Loses $139 Million in Q3 as Pay TV Subs Drop by 64,000

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Sling TV adds 117,000 customers

A Dish Network authorized retailer in San Pablo, Calif.
A Dish Network authorized retailer in San Pablo, Calif. (Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Dish Network swung to a loss in the third quarter as it shedded 64,000 pay-TV subscribers.

The loss was a surprise to Wall Street. Dish also missed on analysts’ revenue estimates. By the end of the day, Dish stock lost nearly 40% of its value, closing at $3.44 a share.

Dish finished the quarter with 8.84 million pay TV subscribers, down from 8.904 million at the end of the second quarter and 10.02 million a year ago.

Dish satellite subscribers fell to 6.72 million from 6.901 million at the end of the second quarter and 7.607 million a year ago.

Sling TV streaming subscribers rose to 2.12 million from 2.003 million in the second quarter, but down from 2.411 million a year ago.

Dish’s third-quarter loss was $139 million, or 26 cents a share, compared to net income of $412 million or 65 cents a share.

Revenue fell 9.8% to $3.7 billion. 

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.