Satellite television provider Dish Network Corp. (DISH) Tuesday reported a loss for its second quarter, compared to a profit last year that reflected impairment charges related to two satellites acquisitions, as well as a fall in subscriber numbers. Quarterly revenues slightly improved, but was below analysts' consensus.
Total subscribers fell about 78,000 in the second quarter. Dish added around 624,000 gross new pay-TV subscribers in the period, down from nearly 665,000 gross new pay-TV subscribers in the prior-year period.
The company closed the second quarter with 14.014 million pay-TV subscribers, compared with 14.061 million pay-TV subscribers at the end of second quarter in 2012.
Average revenue per user or ARPU from pay-TV increased more than 4 percent from the prior year to $80.90. Pay-TV subscriber churn rate rose to 1.67 percent from 1.60 percent in the same quarter a year ago, impacted by the firm's first programming package price increase in two years.
Dish added about 61,000 net broadband subscribers in the recent second quarter, bringing its broadband subscriber base to around 310,000. Meanwhile, net broadband subscribers additions in the second quarter of 2012 was about 11,000.
Joseph Clayton, president and CEO of the company said, "We are pleased to see continued growth in Hopper receiver take rates, as well as growth in broadband-connected subscribers. This performance reflects efforts like our DISH Anywhere mobile app and our iPad 2 promotion with Apple, and will set the stage for long-range revenue performance."
In the second quarter, net loss attributable to the company was $11 million or $0.02 per share, compared to a profit of $226 million or $0.50 per share in the previous year.
The company said its recent quarter results were impacted by $438 million impairment charges of two of the three satellites acquired through TerreStar and DBSD transactions.
On average, 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $0.54 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Quarterly revenues slightly improved to $3.61 billion from $3.57 billion a year earlier, while it was below analysts' estimate of $3.65 billion. Subscriber-related revenue rose 4.9 percent year-over-year to $3.46 billion.
DISH closed Wednesday's regular trading at $39.61 on the Nasdaq. In the pre-market activity, the shares are currently down 5.07 percent.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com