Intellectual Property Law

Dish Network is Going Down - Loses Subs. in Q2

By Cynthia Brumfield

In the clearest sign to date that DBS multichannel video is a dying service, Dish Network issued its Q2 08 earnings report this morning showing its first-ever loss of subscribers. From Q1 08 to Q2 08, Dish lost 25,000 net customers, wrapping up the quarter with 13.79 million customers.

Despite this, EchoStar posted a 9% year-over-year rise in subscriber-related revenue due to rising average revenue per subscriber and a nearly 50% hike in net income, thanks to cost-cutting. Subscriber revenue rose to $2.88 billion, up from $2.76 billion a year ago and net income jumped to $335.86 million, up from $224.19 million.

Although EchoStar is admittedly the weaker of the two main U.S. DBS providers, DirecTV, which issues its earnings report on Thursday, this news doesn't bode well for DirecTV.

Full post as published by IP Democracy on August 04, 2008 (boomark / email).