Dish Network Corp., the second- largest U.S. satellite-television company, said it will freeze the price of its most-popular programming package, waive activation fees and offer three months of service free.
The freeze applies to the DishDVR Advantage package, Dish Network said in a statement today. DishDVR Advantage starts at $39.99 a month and won’t change through February 2009, Chief Marketing Officer Jessica Insalaco said in the statement.
Dish Network’s 110,000 new subscribers in the third quarter trailed some analysts’ estimates amid higher customer defections, a problem Chief Executive Office Charles Ergen pinned on a slowing economy and operational problems. Deteriorating housing and credit markets and increased competition curbed demand and will continue to slow growth, the company said in a regulatory filing Nov. 9.
In the same quarter, El Segundo, California-based DirecTV Group Inc., the largest U.S. satellite-TV company, added more customers than analysts expected and reduced its rate of cancellations.
The DishDVR Advantage package includes America’s Top 100 or 200 programming package with local channels, a free two-room DVR and installation, the company said.
Englewood, Colorado-based Dish Network, which changed its name from EchoStar Communications Corp. following a spinoff last week, fell $1.50, or 4.5 percent, to $31.98 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Separately, EchoStar Holding Corp., the equipment company created in the spinoff, expects to initially lose money on analog digital television converters it plans to sell this year for $39.99, Reuters reported, citing Ergen.
