(RTTNews) - Subscription television business Dish Network Corp. (DISH: News ) Monday reported a 12.3% decline in its third-quarter profit, hurt by lower revenues and higher expenses.

The company's third-quarter net income attributable to common shareholders was $81 million compared with $92 million last year. Earnings per share declined to $0.18 from $0.20 in the prior-year quarter.

On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.44 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Dish Network's total revenue was $2.892 billion, down from $2.937 billion in the previous year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.93 billion.

According to the company, the third-quarter performance was positively impacted by its sales and marketing promotions and reduced churn. The second quarter 2009 completion of the company's security access device replacement program, an increase in new subscriber commitment period and initiatives to retain subscribers positively impacted the churn.

The company also said that on January 1, 2008, it completed a tax-free distribution of its technology and set-top box business and certain infrastructure assets into a separate publicly-traded company, EchoStar Corp. Dish Network and EchoStar now operate as separate publicly-traded companies.

The company's subscriber-related revenue declined 0.8% to $2.86 billion from $2.89 billion in the previous year, hurt primarily by lower Average monthly revenue per subscriber, or ARPU.

ARPU was $69.51 versus $69.82 during the same period in 2008. ARPU was negatively impacted by promotional discounts on programming offered to new subscribers and the company's initiatives to retain subscribers, all of which negatively impacted subscriber-related margins.
Equipment sales and other revenue was $23.39 million, down 44.2% from $41.92 million in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to lower non-subsidized sales of DBS accessories and digital converter boxes in 2009.

Equipment sales at EchoStar Corp and subsidiaries decreased to $1.28 million from $2.43 million in the same quarter last year. Transitional services and other revenue at EchoStar reached $4.92 million, lower than the previous year's $6.27 million.

The company said it gained approximately 241,000 net subscribers during the quarter ended on September 30, 2009, ending the quarter with approximately 13.851 million subscribers. Current economic conditions negatively impacted subscriber growth. Meanwhile, subscriber-related expenses continued to increase.

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