Dish Network mogul Charlie Ergen’s company, EchoStar, has reported a significant loss in pay TV subscribers in the first quarter of the year. According to a regulatory filing, EchoStar lost about 348,000 net pay TV subscribers, a slight improvement from the 552,000 drop in the same period last year.
The company also disclosed that it lost around 135,000 net Sling TV subscribers in the latest quarter, compared to a loss of 234,000 in the previous year. Despite the decline, EchoStar ended March with 1.92 million Sling TV subscribers.
EchoStar attributed the decrease in net Sling TV subscriber losses to their focus on acquiring higher quality subscribers, although they also faced increased competition from other subscription video-on-demand and live-linear OTT service providers.
In addition to the loss in Sling TV subscribers, EchoStar also recorded a net decline of about 213,000 in its traditional Dish satellite TV subscribers, ending March with 6.26 million subscribers. The company cited a lower churn rate for the decrease in net Dish TV subscriber losses.
Overall, EchoStar’s total pay-TV subscriber base at the end of the first quarter stood at 8.178 million. The company reported a first-quarter revenue decline of 8 percent to $2.73 billion, with operating income declining 1 percent to $670.1 million.
EchoStar, led by president and CEO Hamid Akhavan with Charlie Ergen as executive chairman, was created at the start of the year through an all-stock merger of Dish Network and EchoStar Corp. Despite the subscriber losses, the company continues to navigate the competitive pay-TV landscape.