Sling TV lost more than 230,000 subscribers in the first quarter, matching a nearly equal number bled by sibling linear satellite-TV service Dish Network.
Overall, parent company Dish lost 462,000 pay TV customers, with Dish satellite TV finishing Q1 with just under 8 million subscribers, and Sling TV with just 2.25 million. Dish lost a combined 230,000 pay TV customers in the first three months of 2021.
“If you are watching two hours of TikTok, you are not watching two hours of Discovery,” Dish chairman Charlie Ergen told investors during Friday‘s Q1 earnings call. “The video business needs to innovate ... 15-16 minutes of commercials needs to change.”
In January, Sling TV upped prices for its core tiers by $5 to $35 per month.
In terms of scale, Sling TV has been running in place for several years — it now has fewer customers than it did two years ago, when it finished Q1 2020 with 2.31 million.
Dish Network, which started reporting its full Q1 earnings at 10 p.m. ET Friday, also said that its net income dropped to $433 million during the quarter vs. $630 million in Q1 2021. ▪️
