DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH) reported fourth-quarter 2018 earnings of 64 cents per share that missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 67 cents. The company had reported earnings of $2.64 in the year-ago quarter.
Moreover, revenues declined 4.9% year over year to $3.31 billion. However, the figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.28 billion.
DISH exited the reported quarter with 9.90 million DISH TV and 2.42 million Sling TV subscribers. Total Pay-TV subscribers were 12.32 million.
Net Pay-TV subscribers declined approximately 334K. The number was much higher than 39K subscribers lost in the year-ago quarter.
Operating income rallied 25.3% year over year to $562.7 million. Operating margin expanded 400 basis points (bps) to 16.6% in the quarter.
2018 Details
In 2018, revenues declined 5.4% year over year to $13.62 billion. Earnings plunged 26.3% year over year to $3 per share.
Gross new DISH TV subscriber activations were roughly 1.114 million. Pay-TV average revenue per user (ARPU) was $85.46,down from $86.43 reported in 2017. DISH TV's average monthly subscriber churn rate was 1.78%, unchanged from 2017.
Sling TV subscribers increased 0.205 million in 2018. However, the number was much lower than 0.711 million added in the previous year. The slowdown in subscriber addition can be attributed to intensifying competition from the likes of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) , Hulu, HBO, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and other digital media providers.
Further, subscriber acquisition cost (SAC) was $759 in 2018 compared with $751 in 2017.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, DISH carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) , with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), is a stock worth considering in the same sector. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Long-term earnings growth rate for TEGNA is 10%.
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