Dish Network Quarterly Profit Jumps, But Loses Customers

Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) reported on Tuesday a 30% increase in second-quarter profit, though widely missing Wall Street expectations on sales, as net subscribers declined on rising competitive pressures.

Dish posted net income of $335 million, or 75 cents a share, compared with $257 million, or 57 cents a share, in the same quarter last year, missing the Streets view of 79 cents.

Revenue for the three months ended June 30 was $3.59 billion, up 13.3% from $3.17 billion a year ago, topping average analyst estimates polled by Thomson Reuters of $3.4 billion.

The company, which acquired assets from BlockBuster out of bankruptcy in April, said net subscribers decreased by about 135,000 during the quarter, bringing total customers to about 14.056 million.

Our decrease in net subscribers was primarily due to increased competitive pressures, including higher levels of discounting said the companys chief executive, the companys chief executive, Joe Clayton, said in a statement. As we look forward to the second half of the year, we will focus on commercializing our technology, re-energizing our distribution channels and strengthening our brand image.

In addition to the purchase of Blockbuster, Dish also settled litigation with Tivo and renewed a multi-year partnership with Frontier Communication, which includes some 4 million customers in 27 states.