EchoStar Communications Corp.’s stock rebounded a bit Thursday, after a 10 percent drop Wednesday on an earnings report that didn’t meet analysts’ expectations.
The Douglas County-based satellite-TV provider closed at $32.76, up about 4 percent from its Wednesday close of $31.48.
Company officials followed up on the second- quarter earnings release with a conference call with analysts Thursday. Noticeably absent from the call was chairman Charlie Ergen, who officials said “had a previous family engagement.”
Five EchoStar executives ranging from vice chairman Carl Vogel to general counsel David Moskowitz spoke about earnings, which came in at $168.8 million, or 38 cents a share. Analysts had expected 44 cents a share. Revenues were $2.46 billion, up 17 percent.
As part of the call, EchoStar executives said they would being cutting off the distant network signals of some subscribers because of a lawsuit by broadcasters.
The move is based on a May ruling by an Atlanta appeals court that ordered EchoStar to stop distributing local network programming to subscribers outside of the region. An injunction will take effect in September.
Fewer than 1 million of EchoStar’s 12.5 million customers subscribe to distant network channels. That portion of their Dish Network programming package brings EchoStar about $5 per subscriber, Moskowitz said.
“The broadcasters hold the cards,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said in a research note. “Without a settlement, EchoStar could face significantly higher churn starting in September.”
The company also said it was “confident” that it would prevail in its patent-infringement battle with TiVo.
In April, a Texas jury awarded TiVo $74 million. EchoStar is appealing the decision, although Moskowitz said company engineers are researching a workaround should they have to change the technical specifications of its digital video recorders.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-820-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
