DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH) reported that its full year 2015 profits plunged 21% as its operational income was hurt by $516 million in FCC auction expenses. Apart from that, about $123 million was spent towards impairment charges of long-lived assets. As a result, its earnings per share fell shy of Street analysts’ expectations by 36 cents a share. The company was still able to generate 3.4% more revenue in the same period.
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Full Year Results
DISH Network reported that its net income dropped 21% to $747 million from $945 million in 2015. Similarly, its earnings fell 21.1% to $1.61 a share from $2.04 a share in the same period. Street analysts estimated the cable firm to deliver earnings of $1.97 a share while Capital IQ expected $2.00 a share.
The cable firm’s top line advanced 3.4% to $15.1 billion from $14.6 billion in the previous year. Its subscriber-related revenue also grew to $15 billion from $14.5 billion representing a 3.45% uptick. Revenue was in line with Street expectations of $15.02 billion. The company’s operating income also plunged 27.8% to $1.3 billion from $1.8 billion in the comparable period hurt by impairment charges and FCC auction expenses.
Subscribers Data
DISH Network said that it was able to activate about 2.77 million gross Pay-TV subscribers in 2015. That was 6.61% higher than the preceding year’s 2.601 million. The most significant factor was that its net Pay-TV subscribers witnessed a loss of about 81,000 in 2015, which was higher than the approximately 79,000 loss suffered in the preceding year, 2014. As a result, the company closed the year with net Pay-TV subscribers of 13.897 million suggesting a loss of 58 basis points from 2014.
DISH Network’s average revenue per user (ARPU) in Pay-TV grew 3.6% to $86.79 from $83.77 in 2014, a good sign going forward. The company disclosed a 1.71% average monthly subscriber churn rate in 2015, higher than 1.59% recorded in the preceding year. In the broadband section, the company added about 623,000 subscribers in 2015 indicating 8% growth from 577,000 witnessed in 2014.
