Dish Network Profit Falls 12%; EchoStar Swings To Black
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Dish Network Corp.'s (DISH) third-quarter earnings fell 12% despite posting
another quarter of subscriber growth while former unit EchoStar Corp. (SATS)
swung to a profit.
Dish Network, the nation's second-largest satellite-television provider behind
DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV), also declared a one-time, $2 a share dividend.
Dish targets lower-end consumers, who have been harder hit by the economic
downturn. DirecTV, which has benefited from its customers' greater resilience to
the downturn, Thursday reported a slowdown in new customers for the third
quarter, having focused its efforts on profitability rather than subscriber
growth.
Monday, Dish Network posted a profit of $81 million, or 18 cents per basic
share, from $92 million, or 20 cents a share, a year earlier. The previous
year's results included a $106 million loss on marketable investment securities.
The company didn't provide details on items in the most recent period.
Revenue decreased 1.5% to $2.89 billion.
A survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters anticipated 43 cents on revenue of $
2.93 billion. Analysts' estimates usually exclude the effects of one-time items.
The company gained 241,000 net subscribers during the third-quarter, its
second consecutive period of growth after a year of declines. Total
subscribership stood at 13.9 million.
Meanwhile, EchoStar, which spun off from Dish at the start of 2008 and still
relies on the company for most of its business, reported a profit of $294
million, or $3.45 per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $308 million,
or $3.43 per share.
Revenue decreased 22% to $483 million.
Dish Network's shares closed Friday at $19.15, while EchoStar's closed at $
19.88. Neither was active premarket.
-By Joan E. Solsman, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2291; joan.solsman@
dowjones.com
Order free Annual Report for EchoStar Communications Corp
Visit http://djnewswires.ar.wilink.com/?link=SATS or call 1-888-301-0513
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-09-090646ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
|