EchoStar, the company led by telecom mogul Charlie Ergen, reported a decline in pay-TV subscribers in the first quarter. The company lost approximately 348,000 net pay TV subscribers, an improvement from the 552,000 drop in the same period last year. Additionally, EchoStar disclosed a loss of around 135,000 net Sling TV subscribers, compared to a loss of 234,000 in the previous year, ending March with 1.92 million Sling TV subscribers.
The company attributed the decrease in net Sling TV subscriber losses to a focus on acquiring higher quality subscribers, although they experienced lower Sling TV subscriber activations. EchoStar also recorded a net decline of about 213,000 traditional Dish satellite TV subscribers, ending March with 6.26 million subscribers.
Despite the subscriber losses, EchoStar’s total pay-TV subscriber base stood at 8.178 million at the end of the first quarter. 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, created through an all-stock merger of Dish Network and EchoStar Corp at the beginning of the year, is currently led by Hamid Akhavan as president and CEO, with Charlie Ergen serving as executive chairman. The company continues to face increased competition in the pay-TV market, including from other subscription video-on-demand and live-linear OTT service providers.