Dish Network’s (DISH) Q1 profit is expected to fall 8%, with revenue growing only 1%, as its core satellite TV business struggles amid M&A speculation involving DirecTV Group (DTV) and phone company AT&T (T). Dish Network reports first-quarter results on Thursday morning. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimate EPS of 43 cents, down from 47 cents a year earlier. Revenue will edge up 1% to $3.58 billion, analysts estimate. Dish Network ended
As Dish Networks’ stock trades near its all-time high, shareholders await the next move by Charlie Ergen, chairman of a company one analyst calls an emerging “spectrum conglomerate.” Reports speculated last week that Ergen aims to cajole DirecTV Group (DTV) into again seeking a merger between the two satellite broadcasters, a move regulators blocked in 2002. Dish (DISH) has been buying blocks of radio spectrum for two years. It has nearly 55 MHz.
A quarter of a million U.S. households dumped their pay-TV service last year, providing evidence that cord cutting is a real trend. In 2013, the U.S. multichannel video business posted its first ever full-year decline in subscriptions, research firm SNL Kagan reported Wednesday. Across all pay TV platforms — cable, satellite and telecom — the industry lost 251,000 subscribers last year. Cable television providers lost 2 million subscribers, while telecom TV services gained 1.58 million and satellite providers added 170,000. Winners in the pay TV business last year included satellite TV services DirecTV (DTV) and Dish Network (DISH) and telecom TV providers AT&T (T) U-verse and Verizon (VZ) FiOS, all of which gained subscribers. The industry has seen quarterly declines in the past, but the first annual dip in subscribers illustrates longer-term downward pressure on the pay-TV business, even as economic conditions improve, SNL said.