Satellite video provider DISH Network has a successful Q1 in terms of net revenue and EBITDA, even while suffering on the subscriber end. Part of the problem on the latter count was said to be the prolonged fee dispute with Fox.
The revenue gain wasn’t unexpected, and in fact was slightly lower than anticipated.
The EBITDA gain was a clear beat of the consensus opinion.
Revenue was up 3.6% to $3.72B, just off the $3.74B consensus.
EBITDA was up 5% to $730M, well ahead of the consensus $716M.
Marci Ryvicker of Wells Fargo Securities suggested that lower-than-expected programming costs were likely behind the positive EBITDA costs.
Pay television subscriber numbers were all down from the previous year.
554K new accounts were activated, down from 639K in Q1 2014 and below consensus expectations.
Net subscriptions were down 134K, well off last year’s 40K gain. The loss was also steeper than analyst predictions.
The company added 14K broadband customers, also below expectations and down from last year’s 53K gain.
