Telcos line up to take Dish Network's lunch money

Telcos are continuing to make inroads as TV providers, beefing up their revenues (or at least trimming their losses) at the expense of cable operators and satellite services. This week's victim is Dish Network, which blamed its first quarter woes--it says subscriber growth plunged 89% in the first quarter from a year ago--on competition from telcos and a struggling economy.
 
"We believe our gross new subscriber additions have been and are likely to continue to be negatively impacted by competitive factors, including the expansion of fiber-based pay TV providers, the effectiveness of certain competitors' promotional offers and market perceptions of the availability of attractive programming, particularly the relative quantity of HD programming offered," Dish Network said in a 10-Q filing with the SEC after market close yesterday.

Despite the slowdown in growth, EchoStar said it's first quarter net income was up 65 percent to $259 million, or 58 cents a share, compared to $157 million, or 35 cents a share, a year ago. Average revenue per subscriber was up 5.9 percent to $67.97.
 
For more:
- Read the story [1] in Multichannel News
- Check out the Associated Press earnings story [2]

Related articles:
Could AT&T acquire EchoStar? [3] 
EchoStar wins slice of spectrum in FCC auction [4]