First-quarter earnings fall, revenue up

Dish Network Corp. reported lower earnings as it continued to lose subscribers.

Net earnings fell to $73 million, or 13 cents a share, from $340 million, or 65 cents a share a year ago. The company said its earnings were impacted by $356 million in impairments related to its narrowband IoT network and the D1 and T1 satellites.

Revenue rose to $3.22 billion from $3.19 billion a year ago.

Dish said it lost 413,000 pay-TV subscribers in the first quarter, compared to a loss of 259,000 subscribers a year ago. It finshed with 11.32 million pay-TV subscribers, including 9.01 million with Dish TV and 2.31 million with Sling TV.

Dish also said it paused service or provided temporary rate relief for some commercial accounts, many of which Dish expects to disconnect because of COVID-19 disruption. Those accounts represent about 250,000 subscribers, the company said.

Dish does not expect to incur significant expenses from the reactivation of any returning commercial accounts. While returning accounts will be added to future ending subscriber counts, they will not be counted as gross new subscriber additions in the period of their return.