Dish loses 552,000 pay-TV subscribers in first quarter – The Hollywood Reporter

Charlie Ergin

Courtesy of Dish

Dish Network reported losing about 552,000 net pay-TV subscribers in the first quarter, compared to a decrease of 462,000 subscribers in the same period last year, and a decrease of 268,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The company, led by CEO Erik Carlson and Chairman Charlie Ergen, finished the fiscal quarter with a total of 9.2 million subscribers. This includes 7.09 million Dish TV customers and 2.1 million subscribers to Sling TV, which faces stiff competition from YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV and fuboTV.

Dish has been steadily losing pay-TV subscribers amid cord cuts and consumers’ shift to streaming platforms, and has recently seen its subscriber base affected by an internal cybersecurity attack. The company had a total pay TV customer base of 9.75 million at the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Dish is looking to transform itself from a provider of satellite broadcasting into refusing to offer a 5G wireless network as part of its broadband wireless business. The company lost 81 thousand subscribers to wireless phone services during the first quarter, compared to a loss of 343 thousand subscribers a year ago, to close the last quarter with 7.91 million subscribers.

The latest subscriber losses — with Dish’s retail satellite TV business shedding subscribers faster than its wireless retail business — total revenue fell to $3.96 billion for the first quarter, compared to $4.33 billion in the year-ago period.

Net income attributable to shareholders decreased to $233 million, compared to $433 million for the first quarter of 2022.

On a morning call with analysts, Dish Network officials said the fallout from a previously disclosed network outage in February caused by a cybersecurity attack hit Sling TV heavily, as late fees for monthly billing were waived after payment systems and call centers went out of business. .

In the effort to acquire and retain Sling TV customers, “that’s where the impact happened,” Carlson stated, even as Dish Network executives were keen to allay concerns that the ransomware attack would have a long-term impact on the pay-TV brand and subscriber count.

Shares in Dish Network rose 4 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $7.16 in early afternoon trading.

Dish Network has seen its share price slump amid investor concerns about the company’s high debt load to build its wireless broadband business as interest rates rise and pay-TV and wireless phone revenues continue to be under pressure.

“We have a path and it’s not clear to the people on this call, but we do have a path and we have to implement that and hopefully it doesn’t get any worse in the market,” Charlie Ergen told analysts. The company’s development of the 5G wireless phone network.