Dish Network reported that it added 214,000 Sling TV subscribers in the third quarter, more than offsetting a drop in satellite subscribers to give the company an increase in pay TV subscribers compared to the second quarter.
The gain runs counter to cord-cutting, which has cost distributors including Comcast, Charter Communications and Verizon Communications subscribers this quarter.
Despite the gain, Dish’s revenue and profits fell in the quarter.
Dish finished the third quarter with 10.018 million pay TV subscribers, up 30,000 from the second quarter but down 962,000 from a year ago — a 9% drop.
The third quarter is usually relatively strong for pay TV, with the return of college and NFL football. Dish started the fourth quarter with a brief blackout of ESPN and the rest of The Walt Disney Co. networks, which might impact Dish’s fourth-quarter results. Dish also announced price increases at the start of the fourth quarter.
Sling TV, Dish’s streaming virtual multichannel video programming distributor, finished the quarter with 2.411 million subscribers, up from 2.197 million subscribers at the end of Q2, but down 145,000 from a year ago when it had 2.556 million subscribers.
Dish had 7.607 million satellite subscribers, down 189,000 from the second quarter and down 817,000 from a year ago.
Dish Network’s net income fell to $412 million, or 65 cents a share in the quarter, from $557 million, or 88 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue fell 8% to $4.1 billion. The company’s average revenue per pay TV subscriber rose to $102.07 from $101.30 in the second quarter and $96.31 a year ago.
The company’s wireless subscribers rose to 8.007 million from 7.867 million in the second quarter but down from 8.774 million a year ago. ■
