DISH will give us year-end results in a conference call tomorrow, February 21, 2018. According to their press release,
Participant conference numbers: (888) 378-4439 (U.S.) and (323) 701-0225, Conference ID: 4394518.
When prompted on dial-in, please utilize the conference ID and ask for the “DISH Network Q4 and Year-End 2017 Earnings Conference Call.”
There was a time in the recent past when these calls were cause for almost universal celebration. Unfortunately, the pay-TV market is shrinking and has been for some time. That’s not likely to change, which is why companies like DISH have been diversifying into other services. Comcast has internet, and DISH has a streaming service for example.
DISH hasn’t split out the subscribers of its Sling TV service from its other subscribers, but we have to guess that most of the subscriber additions we’re seeing here are going to be Sling TV, while most of the subscriber losses are going to be from the pay-TV satellite service. That’s been the projection for several quarters.
On the other hand, DISH satellite had a good quarter with the introduction late in the year of the Hopper Duo DVR, which replaces the 622/722 as the dual-room DVR of choice. 622 and 722 products were coming on a decade old and while the race for better and greater technology has long been won by super DVRs like the Hopper 3 and DIRECTV’s Genie 2, there’s still a market for an economical 2-room solution. This new product proves that DISH is still committed to satellite television, and that’s good news of course.
Unlike previous years, we won’t be liveblogging the conference call, so if someone does plan to listen in, be sure to bookmark this page and leave comments here with your impressions. Our new blog uses the DISQUS commenting system which means anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, or Google account can sign in without creating another whole registration.
