Dish Network Gains on Subscriber Revenue
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (
) --
Dish Network
(DISH) - Get Report
saw earnings spike during the third quarter, driven by higher subscriber related revenue.
For the quarter ended September 30, the company saw a triple-digit gain in earnings to $245 million, or 55 cents per diluted share, compared with earnings of $80.6 million, or 18 cents per diluted share, in the same period a year ago. Earnings came in well ahead of analyst estimates of 42 cents.
Revenue rose 10.9% to $3.21 billion from $2.89 billion during the quarter as subscriber-related revenue was up 11.3% to $3.19 billion from $2.86.
The company added 819,000 gross subscribers during the quarter, compared to 887,000 added subscribers in the same period a year earlier. While the company lost approximately 29,000 net subscribers compared to a net gain of 241,000 a year ago, the higher average monthly revenue per subscriber brought up the revenue.
ARPU was up 7% to $74.36 from $69.51. Management says that ARPU will continue to increase as a result of higher hardware-related fees, which includes rental and DVR fees. Dish ended the quarter with approximately 14.3 million subscribers.
Equipment sales and other revenue was down 49.2% to $11.9 million from $23.4 million, while EchoStar equipment sales revenue was down 37.2% to $802,000 from $1.3 million.
For the nine months ended September 30, earnings rose 60.5% to $732.9 million, or $1.64 per share, compared with earnings of $456.7 million, or $1.02 a share, in the same period a year ago.
Revenue rose 8.8% to $9.36 billion from $8.61 billion.
During the nine months, Dish added approximately 189,000 net subscribers, compared to a gain of approximately 173,000 net subscribers in the same period in 2009. The gain was due to an increase in sales and marketing promotions, primarily during the first quarter of 2010.
Subscriber-related revenue was up 8.8% to $9.36 billion from $8.61 billion related to a larger subscriber base and an increase in ARPU.
-- Written by Theresa McCabe in Boston.
>To contact the writer of this article, click here:
Theresa McCabe
.
>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to
.
>To submit a news tip, send an email to:
.
Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.
