ENGLEWOOD, COLO. — Dish Network Corp., the nation’s No. 2 satellite television provider, said today its fourth-quarter profit climbed 14 percent although subscriber growth slowed amid aggressive competition and a sluggish economy.
The results missed Wall Street expectations and its stock fell as much as 4 percent in morning trading.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Dish Network said net income totaled $175 million, or 39 cents per share, compared with $153 million, or 35 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 12 percent to $2.89 billion from $2.58 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast, on average, net income of 45 cents per share on revenue of $2.86 billion.
Dish Network said it added 85,000 net new subscribers in the fourth quarter to put the total at 13.78 million for the year. The total was up 675,000 subscribers, or 5.2 percent, from December 2006.
The growth was slower than in the previous year, which Dish Network blamed on stiff competition and satellite launch delays that have hampered the company’s ability to add local high-definition markets.
“Subscriber growth was also affected by worsening economic conditions which included a slowdown in new housing starts,” the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
For the year, Dish reported net income of $756 million, or $1.69 a share, compared with net income of $608 million, or $1.37 a share, in 2006.
Its average monthly churn rate, which reflects the number of subscribers who stop service, rose to 1.7 percent in 2007 from 1.64 percent in 2006.
The company said its average monthly revenue per subscriber rose to $65.83 from $62.78 in 2006, attributing it to price increases that took effect last year and deeper penetration of high-definition programming.
Average acquisition costs per subscriber dipped slightly to $656 in 2007 from $686 in 2006.
Based in suburban Englewood, the Dish Network was known as EchoStar Communications Corp. until Jan. 1 when it spun off its equipment business into EchoStar Corp. The Dish Network retained the pay television business.
After falling 4 percent, share traded down 79 cents, or 2.6 percent, at $29.87 in early trading.
