Dish sheds 102,000 subs and reports a Profit

This is from a CNN Money Article about the earnings report:
Dish focuses on the low-end consumer, who is getting squeezed by the continuing economic decline. DirecTV has been able to better weather the storm because its customers are less vulnerable and because it had a quicker rollout of high-definition programming and sports packages.
Who would of thought, that by serving your customer better, you would reap the rewards of increased subscribers and profits?! What a novel concept!!
 
No. The worst recession in 70 years has nothing to do with it.:rolleyes:

You're calling this the "worst recession in 70 years" based on what?

Certainly not GDP; 1982 was just as bad.

It's certainly reasonable that the recession has hit Dish harder, mainly because Charlie has targeted a market that is particularly vulnerable to economic downturns. Really can't blame anyone but him (unless you don't think he should have realized that eventually things were going to swing the other way).
 
Do you think Dish made a profit because after confusing package names and the ordeal with Fox, it made subscribers switch out of lower priced tiers into higher priced tiers?

:) :) :)
 
Do you think Dish made a profit because after confusing package names and the ordeal with Fox, it made subscribers switch out of lower priced tiers into higher priced tiers?

:) :) :)

I thought the report was for last quarter. All these new package names and Fox happened last month.
 
You're calling this the "worst recession in 70 years" based on what?

Certainly not GDP; 1982 was just as bad.

It's certainly reasonable that the recession has hit Dish harder, mainly because Charlie has targeted a market that is particularly vulnerable to economic downturns. Really can't blame anyone but him (unless you don't think he should have realized that eventually things were going to swing the other way).


You are right. 1982 was a lot worse with unemployment close to 10%.
Charlie will tell us today how he intends to change some things with his company. He could just pull out the same speach the last few qts.

Charlie speak=BS

He has been promising to fix the csr situation for over 2 years now. I still talk to people with a name of "Sam" that cannot speak a lick of english from Dish.
 
If I don't get the Indianapolis HD locals this month then Mr. Ergan will be losing another $130/mo customer to DirecTV.
 
If I don't get the Indianapolis HD locals this month then Mr. Ergan will be losing another $130/mo customer to DirecTV.
That's unfortunate, but it's ok. Didn't you see the numbers? You leave, he loses a sub, but makes more money! Charlie's just praying the same trend continues and 10 million subs leave next quarter and make him a trillionaire! It's Trickle-up Economics. I'm sure you've heard of it!:D
 
The economy is the 1st thing blamed again this time around too...

In its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dish Network cited a number of factors for the drop, including the economy, aggressive promotional moves by competitors to get and keep subscribers, competitive marketing and the rise of fiber-based and Internet-based video companies.
 
Wow, those 102,000 people apparently don't know how hard Charlie is working to keep their monthly bills down :haha
 
102,000 is really a drop in the bucket when you think of it: foreclosures have caused people to move, economy has caused people to cut back, fios has been expanding, directtv has some great 1 year promos, etc.

The bottom line is such: some people left to get a better deal for 12 months and save money or just gave up on all cable and/or satellite services in lieu of Netflix, the PC, etc.
 
Looks like the other side of the business didn't have a good quarter. From Satellite TV firms take hit on quarterly results - MarketWatch

"In a related matter, EchoStar Corp. , which used to own Dish before it was spun off in 2007, reported a quarterly loss of almost $700 million owing to a handful of one-time costs. The two companies are now separately operated, though EchoStar does sell equipment and satellite services to Dish.
 
I noticed yesterday that DISH is running a new customer special of $9.99 a month for the first 6 months and a free DVR upgrade on local Metro Washington DC stations. Went by me pretty quickly but I think it was for what is regularly $39.99 a month and supposedly includes up to 50 HD channels. This kind of promotion should bring numbers up in the next few quarters.
 
A few things to note:

1. Dish is profitable, Echostar is not. The "profits" are not really there. Sats did have a few one time write offs totaling about $650m. Charlie is just moving money from one pocket to the other.

2. 102k is not really a meaningful number. What segment of customers made up that number. Were they all minimum subs or are they losing the big subs? 102k subs that were late payers and unprofitable would be a good thing to get rid of, 102k of AEP+HD+ subs would not be good.

3. Dish is losing customers while other companies are gaining them. It is not just the economy, Dish is losing its competative edge.