Echostar’s pay television platforms Dish Network and Sling TV lost 348,000 customers during the first three months of the year, the company revealed in a financial disclosure on Wednesday.
The erosion included a loss of 135,000 subscribers at Sling TV, which saw its customer base fall to 1.92 million accounts during the first quarter (Q1) of 2024. Dish satellite lost another 213,000 customer accounts to end Q1 with 6.26 million subscribers, Echostar revealed.
The total number of pay TV customers served between Dish and Sling TV stood at just under 8.2 million accounts, Echostar said. Revenue from its pay TV segment dropped to $2.726 billion, or 8.2 percent lower compared to Q1 2023.
“We’re seeing positive signs of increased operational efficiency in the business,” Gary Schanman, the Executive Vice President of Video Services at Dish and Echostar, said on a conference call with investors on Wednesday, adding that Echostar’s focus was on “customer loyalty and improved quality subscriber acquisition.”
That focus allowed Dish to reduce churn rates across its video service business when compared to last year, Schanman proferred, while also allowing Echostar to see increased average revenue per user (ARPU) from its pay TV business.
“All in, the improved churn, ARPU and significant lower variable cost achieved by our savings for growth efforts resulted in higher per sub profitability,” Schanman asserted.
But customers are still leaving, and Schanman said “competitive pressure” from some of its programming partners was to blame for this. He specifically called out Warner Bros Discovery (WBX)’s Max streaming service, which began offering live sports programming from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) through an add-on feature last year.
Schanman said those pressures are likely to mount as WBD works with two other programming partners — Fox Corporation and the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN — to develop and launch a sports-inclusive streaming service of their own, one that he described as “anticompetitive and warrants an examination by the government.”
It was Schanman’s first public remarks about the forthcoming streaming service, internally called “Raptor,” since the three broadcasters unveiled their plans earlier this year. Dish is one of several companies that has backed rival distributor Fubo in its ongoing lawsuit against Fox, ESPN and WBD over the service, with Schanman providing a sealed affidavit in support of Fubo’s motion for a preliminary injunction, The Desk reported last month.
