Dish Network Loses Record-Setting 281,000 Subscribers

newsmax.com ^ | 7/23/2016 | unknown

[rktman]

Dish Network Corp. lost a record number of TV subscribers in the second quarter as programming blackouts and price increases drove customers to seek cheaper online alternatives, reviving industrywide concerns about “cord-cutting.”

Dish shed 281,000 pay-TV customers in the quarter, compared with a loss of 81,000 a year earlier, according to a statement from the Englewood, Colorado-based company Thursday. That marks the biggest loss of TV subscribers in any quarter. The rate of monthly customer defections, or churn, rose to 1.96 percent from 1.71 percent a year earlier, Dish said in a separate filing.

[dfwgator]

Oops I responded to the wrong thread. That’s what I get for having multiple FR Tabs open.

[grania]

last autumn, my cable company had this nonsense where one had to have a cable box on every TV, but not to worry, it would be free for a year or two. I opted to drop Cable TV and replace it with.....nothing.

I get a few (but enough) stations with antenna TV, purchase cheap DVDs, read more. I'm not paying for TV any more. Why pay for something that's free?

[DeltaZulu]

HD antenna fixes the football problem. When I say antenna most folks think of climbing their chimney. But you can get a small indoor amplified antenna for $30 that is no bigger than a dinner plate and you’ll pick up all the local channels from 25 miles around. Do it. Cut the cord.

[Newbomb Turk]

As soon as College football seasons over I'm ditching both cable and internet.

Its not so much the price as how pissed off I get when I see all the additional taxes and fees.

Government is the expert of getting a slice of every businesses hard work with no risk to themselves.

[The people have spoken]

I’d be willing to pay $30 per month for Fox News. But that’s not how the business model works. I have to pay triple that so that I can watch 100 channels I have no interest in. No thanks.

[PCPOET7]

I am cutting my cord in September.. locked into a contract with cable at the moment I tried to cut cable last year but the choices were just not all I wanted. I think that I will do it this year between Netflix, amazon, hulu, sling TV and surface channels I can get all my entertainment for about 40 dollars where at this point I am paying about 80 dollars the only thing I want and cant get is the news channels. I am a news junky and love to watch all three of the news groups fox/cnn/msnbc...

[Yaelle]

Dish is WONDERFUL. Never lost service in over 10 years, at 5 different locations. Their hoppers and joeys are fabulous, you can access everything from any tv in the house, and all network shows are automatically taped and left up for a week or two. It’s easy to use and we have never had any problems. I wish we could pay less but it is effortless great TV. Customer service always works with us, they will always find a way for you to see your teams you want in sports, without necessarily making you get the whole premium package. I love DISH.

[CMAC51]

Content which is generally the same across all systems is not great. Dish’s technology is fare superior to any of the other cable or satellite providers. The new hopper 3 has sixteen tuners which means I never have to decide between programs which I want to record. On top of having the largest on-board hard drive it also allows connecting an external drive so storage space is awesome. I spend time at locations with U-verse, Direct TV, Comcast and Dish. Dish beats the others hands down.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Watched SPECTRE on EPIX last night, OK movie(meh).

Have had ROKU for a couple years now, don't watch much TV "programming" anymore, prefer to watch YouTube vid's as well as older shows OTA. Haven't really had a chance to delve into ROKU content, watch some cooking shows, AOPA and other aviation related stuff...recommend any others?

Another proud member of the cut the cord club, for a couple of years now, wish I'd done it sooner...need more people to tell the degenerate brain-fornicators to shove it.

[GregoTX]

Same here, I have no problems with Dish at all. I spend one weekend a month in a camping trailer using the tailgater receiver, and the regular Hopper at home. I have been happy with the customer service and I can change my programming online instantly with clicks of the mouse. After years of abuse from comcast, I have been pleased with Dish for 4 years now.

[Clay Moore]

AT&T has been deluging me with offers to get Direct TV both by email and snail mail. Some days I get multiple offers.

Maybe when I dump them for Cricket, it will stop.

The desperation would seem to suggest the revenues are not quite as rosy as it was forecast when they took over.

[TomGuy]

I find Youtube frustrating. They have a movies section and TV shows section, but I don’t want to spend hours going through their listings.

Considering that Google, the biggest search engine of all time, owns Youtube, one would think they could develop a more user-friendly approach to Youtube.

Most of what I watch is via Netflix and Amazon Prime and Tivo-ed TV programs. Tivo can skip through the commercials on most recordings. I hate to watch anything on regular cable TV. Commercials commercials commercials. Some commercial breaks are now 8 minutes long.

I would drop cable, but my cable company requires at least the basic tier (broadcast plus a few cable only channels) to be able to get internet service. Most of what is watch is on the next tier, so there no real way to cut costs without dropping cable entirely.

In my area there are few real options. Mobile internet only offers about 10Gb (3 high def movies). Cable preferred internet allows 350Gb. For about the same price. Thus, cable is much more cost effective and offers significantly more for the price.

DSL might be an option, but the phone company requires one also have landline service to get the ‘good’ rate DSL. Landline alone is around $30 per month for local service only.

[bert]

Netflix is superior to Hulu

[Gaffer]

Agree. I already have it....for a long time. I’m just talking about a top-off. Still don’t reach the price of a damned DIRECTV hookup IMO. I been with them for DECADES.

Back when a setup cost near $1000 with DIY installation.....it became overpriced a long long time ago.

[Sans-Culotte]

I had DiSH for 15 years before dumping them a year ago for DirecTV. The final straw was the constant loss of channels. They'd lose TCM or Fox News or some other channel due to not renewing contracts in time. I remember their CEO saying the loss of the Turner channels (TCM, TNT, CNN, et al) was a 'non-event').

They'd eventually get the channels back after a week or two. DTV has a better picture IMO.

[upchuck]

Bump. Your reasoning is why the last TV I watched was Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech in 2008. Don’t miss it at all. From comments I read about today’s TV shows, glad I don’t watch. Who cares?

[stubernx98]

I like Direct TV, cause for $5 I can have a receiver on my boat, and and get all channels plus local all the way up to Alaska!

[gunsequalfreedom]

I find Youtube frustrating. They have a movies section and TV shows section, but I don’t want to spend hours going through their listings.

You don't go through their listing. You just use the search box to watch what you want to a watch. I'm talking the free YouTube. Not sure if they have paid version but I mean just the regular YouTube.

There are all kinds of people doing regular daily shows.

Casey Neistat (really popular)
https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat

Trucker Josh (More like a see everywhere travel channel)
Daily show
https://www.youtube.com/user/truckerjosh456>

1960's TV shows
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=1960%27s+tv+shows+full+episodes

History and Documentaries
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=history+documentary+full+length

Fox News
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fox+news

[AmericanRobot]

We investigated cutting DirectTV and going with roku’s. Sadly, where we live AT&T UVerse is our only option for internet coming in at a very speedy 6mbps. I had the cable internet provider come to see if we were serviceable. They said our run would be too long to provide good signal so we are stuck with AT&T and DirectTV. So we might as well bundle them.

[ronnie raygun]

I questioned why in all the packages they offer I have to pay for BET and other ethnic programming I dont watch, Interesting to hear the person on the line try to explain it away