Dish Pay-TV Losses Balloon to 259K Subs in Q1

[bluegras]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) today reported revenue totaling $3.19 billion for the quarter ending March 31, 2019, compared to $3.46 billion for the corresponding period in 2018.

Net income attributable to DISH Network totaled $340 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2019, compared to net income of $368 million from the year-ago quarter. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter ending March 31, 2019 were $0.65, compared with $0.70 during the same period in 2018.

Dish Pay-TV Losses Balloon to 259K Subs in Q1 | Light Reading

 

[JSheridan]

Gee, they only made 340 million dollars in the first quarter. Poor babies.

 

[ekilgus]

How far back do we need to go to see a period of actual subscriber growth? Many years?

 

[MikeD-C05]

How far back do we need to go to see a period of actual subscriber growth? Many years?

I would say that 2013 was the last year they added more than they lost in subs. They had 14 million subs . After that it has been all down hill. They are now at 9 million satellite subs and losing about a million a year. That isn't counting the Sling tv subs .

 

[navychop]

So you’re saying my Hopper 4 with the red “RECORDING” light is fading into the future?

: oldwink

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[comfortably_numb]

fading into the future?

Slipping into the future

 

[ncted]

Slipping into the future

Like Steve Miller said.

 

[ekilgus]

I would say that 2013 was the last year they added more than they lost in subs. They had 14 million subs . After that it has been all down hill. They are now at 9 million satellite subs and losing about a million a year. That isn't counting the Sling tv subs .

Ouch! Direct and others are to varying degrees also are suffering accordingly, and the primary reason is constantly escalating cost. And since content providers have expressed no interest in abandoning or even moderating their incessant price demands, this will continue until Dish, Direct, and some others realize it's no longer feasible to continue operations. What would fill this entertainment gap is purely speculative.

 

[ChadT41]

Ouch! Direct and others are to varying degrees also are suffering accordingly, and the primary reason is constantly escalating cost. And since content providers have expressed no interest in abandoning or even moderating their incessant price demands, this will continue until Dish, Direct, and some others realize it's no longer feasible to continue operations. What would fill this entertainment gap is purely speculative.

Almost like some billionaire TV service founder said this exact same thing a few years ago, and a few months ago.

Charlie has had one consistent message for content providers since atleast 2011... “STAHP”

 

[PortlandChris]

Ouch! Direct and others are to varying degrees also are suffering accordingly, and the primary reason is constantly escalating cost. And since content providers have expressed no interest in abandoning or even moderating their incessant price demands, this will continue until Dish, Direct, and some others realize it's no longer feasible to continue operations. What would fill this entertainment gap is purely speculative.

One reason is cost, a second reason is cable owns the data lines, and it's much more attractive for me to bundle with Comcast than stay with DISH. Yea, and it sucks, but that's where this is going. I have a promo rate on my data line through September, and then Comcast will jack up my data line....as a result I probably have to bag DISH.

So cost is forcing customers out, but cable is poaching a lot of satellite subscribers because data lines are owned by cable.

Those in rural areas without much data access are going to get hosed in the long run.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Those in rural areas without much data access are going to get hosed in the long run.

It's slowly getting better. They finally laid fiber to my town of 962 and I now have 50/10 DSL. No data caps. It's not cheap but it's dependable.

 

[PortlandChris]

It's slowly getting better. They finally laid fiber to my town of 962 and I now have 50/10 DSL. No data caps. It's not cheap but it's dependable.

50 mbps DSL? You are lucky. Even my phone co bailed out and fasted I can get DSL wise is a bonded 40 mbps DSL. Cable companies won this battle while phone companies sat on the sidelines.

 

[comfortably_numb]

50 mbps DSL?

Yes and it's VDSL so no bonding required. I'm a happy camper

 

[Ngamtns706]

Yes and it's VDSL so no bonding required. I'm a happy camper

No bonding so you must be close to a DSLAM. I wonder if you could get a bonded 100mb? Nothing wrong with bonding, just provides better speeds/svc at father distances than normally capable by using two pairs of wires going to different pins..

 

[comfortably_numb]

I wonder if you could get a bonded 100mb?

Maybe, but I'll already be paying them $109.99 per month for the 50/10 once my new customer promotion runs out in October. I think I'm giving them enough $$$ already

 

[ncted]

My wife and I had 24Mbps VDSL2 for years with no throughput issues. The only thing that made us switch was the price increases from Frontier. It depends on how you use it and how many people are in your house of course, but many people don't need all that much bandwidth. We have 100Mbps now, but 50Mbps was plenty before we upgraded, and 24Mbps was fine before that.

 

[comfortably_numb]

My wife and I had 24Mbps VDSL2 for years with no throughput issues. The only thing that made us switch was the price increases from Frontier. It depends on how you use it and how many people are in your house of course, but many people don't need all that much bandwidth. We have 100Mbps now, but 50Mbps was plenty before we upgraded, and 24Mbps was fine before that.

I had 20/1.5 before, and we had issues when 2 people tried to stream at the same time, or when I tried to push 4K content on Netflix. I find the 50/10 to be sufficient for both. Personally, I wish they had a symmetrical 50/50 offering, because I do a lot of uploading and out-of-home streaming.

 

[ncted]

I had 20/1.5 before, and we had issues when 2 people tried to stream at the same time, or when I tried to push 4K content on Netflix. I find the 50/10 to be sufficient for both. Personally, I wish they had a symmetrical 50/50 offering, because I do a lot of uploading and out-of-home streaming.

4K I can understand, but 2 streams should only take about half of your available bandwidth, depending on resolution and provider. I suspect a bufferbloat issue or something else making you unable to fully take advantage of that 20 Mbps connection. At least it is better now.

 

[mwdxer1]

How far back do we need to go to see a period of actual subscriber growth? Many years?

Are any of the cable/satellite providers getting growth these days? Everything I hear is each one keeps losing customers. A few small cable companies are looking into just handing their internet/phone customers and dropping the TV services. For many the price for what we pay is getting too expensive. Fortunately Dish does have some inexpensive packages.