CASPER
New member
Satellite : Dish posts biggest-ever subscriber loss in Q4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dish posts biggest-ever subscriber loss in Q4
By Yinka Adegoke
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) posted its biggest ever drop in subscribers in the fourth quarter and said it may lose more customers in 2009 as its partnership with AT&T Inc (T.N) ended and the recession and competition hits harder.
Shares of Dish fell 12 percent on Monday as Wall Street analysts saw little hope of a quick turnaround for the once high-flying pay-TV company controlled by Charlie Ergen.
Dish lost 102,000 net subscribers in the fourth quarter, compared to the average forecast for an addition of about 20,000 subscribers, according to a poll of five Wall Street analysts. In the year-ago period, Dish added 85,000 customers.
"Unfortunately, 2009 looks poised to be worse," Craig Moffett, analyst at Sanford Bernstein, wrote in a client note. "Without AT&T, gross additions will face continued downward pressure. And a worsening economy poses a stiff headwind to any hopes of churn improvement," he said.
AT&T's marketing partnership with Dish ended on February 1 this year. The phone company is now partnering with Dish's larger rival DirecTV Group (DTV.O), and has its own digital video service like Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N).
In a filing, Dish said its partnership with AT&T was a "substantial contributor" to its subscriber additions over the past several years, accounting for nearly a fifth of its gross subscriber additions in the fourth quarter.
Dish said it ended the year with 13.68 million subscribers, down 102,000 from the end of 2007.
SIRIUS DEAL
Dish also cited weaker economic conditions, the ailing housing market, signal theft and other forms of fraud, and operational inefficiencies for the subscriber losses. But on a call with analysts Ergen said the worst was likely behind it.
"2008 was kind of a year where our goal was to stop getting worse," said Ergen. "In 2009, we are now prepared to go forward by getting better and it's just easier to manage a company when you are trying to get better than when you are trying to stop getting worse."
Ergen has been in the news in recent weeks for a debt-for-equity bid for a controlling stake in satellite radio company Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI.O). He lost out to an offer by John Malone's Liberty Media (LINTA.O).
Ergen said the company saw the bid as a potentially beneficial way to invest its cash, over paying out dividends or large share buybacks in the current market environment.
"We saw in Sirius a financial opportunity first and foremost that helped a company that needed it," Ergen said on the call, describing Sirius as a good business.
"We also strategically saw it as a business that was very similar to what we do today in that it deals with satellites, recurring income and billing and installations, and the very similar things that we do today at Dish Network."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dish posts biggest-ever subscriber loss in Q4
By Yinka Adegoke
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) posted its biggest ever drop in subscribers in the fourth quarter and said it may lose more customers in 2009 as its partnership with AT&T Inc (T.N) ended and the recession and competition hits harder.
Shares of Dish fell 12 percent on Monday as Wall Street analysts saw little hope of a quick turnaround for the once high-flying pay-TV company controlled by Charlie Ergen.
Dish lost 102,000 net subscribers in the fourth quarter, compared to the average forecast for an addition of about 20,000 subscribers, according to a poll of five Wall Street analysts. In the year-ago period, Dish added 85,000 customers.
"Unfortunately, 2009 looks poised to be worse," Craig Moffett, analyst at Sanford Bernstein, wrote in a client note. "Without AT&T, gross additions will face continued downward pressure. And a worsening economy poses a stiff headwind to any hopes of churn improvement," he said.
AT&T's marketing partnership with Dish ended on February 1 this year. The phone company is now partnering with Dish's larger rival DirecTV Group (DTV.O), and has its own digital video service like Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N).
In a filing, Dish said its partnership with AT&T was a "substantial contributor" to its subscriber additions over the past several years, accounting for nearly a fifth of its gross subscriber additions in the fourth quarter.
Dish said it ended the year with 13.68 million subscribers, down 102,000 from the end of 2007.
SIRIUS DEAL
Dish also cited weaker economic conditions, the ailing housing market, signal theft and other forms of fraud, and operational inefficiencies for the subscriber losses. But on a call with analysts Ergen said the worst was likely behind it.
"2008 was kind of a year where our goal was to stop getting worse," said Ergen. "In 2009, we are now prepared to go forward by getting better and it's just easier to manage a company when you are trying to get better than when you are trying to stop getting worse."
Ergen has been in the news in recent weeks for a debt-for-equity bid for a controlling stake in satellite radio company Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI.O). He lost out to an offer by John Malone's Liberty Media (LINTA.O).
Ergen said the company saw the bid as a potentially beneficial way to invest its cash, over paying out dividends or large share buybacks in the current market environment.
"We saw in Sirius a financial opportunity first and foremost that helped a company that needed it," Ergen said on the call, describing Sirius as a good business.
"We also strategically saw it as a business that was very similar to what we do today in that it deals with satellites, recurring income and billing and installations, and the very similar things that we do today at Dish Network."
