(Reuters) - Dish Network Corp (O:DISH), the second-largest U.S. satellite TV company, reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as it lost pay-TV subscribers due to increased competition.
Dish, led by media mogul Charlie Ergen, said it lost about 12,000 pay-TV subscribers in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.
Analysts on average had expected net addition of 22,100 subscribers, according to market research firm StreetAccount.
Dish attributed the loss of subscribers to intense competition, with rivals offering discounts to new customers and aggressive plans to existing ones to retain them. (http://bit.ly/1vDONSw)
Average revenue per pay-TV subscriber rose to $84.39 in the quarter from $80.98 a year earlier, mainly due to price increases in February, Dish said in a regulatory filing.
The company has been playing hard ball on agreeing to contract renewals with media companies such as CBS Corp (N:CBS) and Time Warner Inc's (N:TWX) Turner Broadcasting.
Dish dropped some of Turner's channels such as CNN, Cartoon Network and late night comedy channel, Adult Swim, in October after the companies failed to hammer out a deal.
Dish, which has about 14 million pay-TV users, is also at odds with CBS Corp over the monthly price per subscriber for the CBS channel.
Net income attributable to Dish fell to $145.5 million, or 31 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $314.9 million, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier, mainly due to higher expenses.
Dish, which also offer broadband services, said revenue rose 4.8 percent to $3.68 billion.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 39 cents per share and revenue of $3.69 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Rival DirectTV (O:DTV) is scheduled to report its results this week.
Dish's shares closed at $63.81 on the Nasdaq on Monday. Up to Monday's close, the stock had risen about 10 percent this year.
(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey)