One Cable Company Just Lost An Unbelievable Number Of Subscribers
Dish Network lost a whopping 268,000 customers during the fourth quarter of 2022.
It’s been a penny-pinching time for all of us and with so many streaming options now available, cable networks have been having a hard time keeping up. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the slump has been especially felt by Dish Network, which saw 268,000 paying customers bid adieu to the platform during their fourth quarter. This gigantic number includes the loss of 77,000 customers from their streaming service – Sling TV – as well as 191,000 satellite TV subscribers.
In their report, CEO Erik Carlson and chairman Charlie Ergen announced that between September 30, 2022, and the December 31, 2022 final-quarter cutoff, they had dropped from 10.02 million subscribers to only 9.75 million. Taking a look back on previous years, this is a major change-up from the final numbers of 2021, which saw Dish Network ending with 10.71 million patrons. The dip marks another step in audiences ditching their longtime cable subscriptions for, presumably, other outlets of entertainment.
On the brighter side for Dish, they were able to squash their fourth-quarter earnings in 2022, raking in $936 million as compared to 2021’s $552 million. With this glow-up, the company flashed what they were made of at Wall Street, which was projecting that the company would take a major plunge. But, the big picture is what’s most important here, and during 2022, Dish only managed to drop $2.3 billion in the bank, which was far below their 2021 ending of $2.41 billion.
As any child of the ‘90s will know, Dish Network was the coolest thing to have when it first exploded onto the scene in 1996. If your household just had a basic cable setup, friends with the seemingly unlimited choices provided by their Dish subscription lived in the home to be at. While the company was able to keep its hold on customers over its first two decades, the popularity and abundance of streaming options over the last several years have undoubtedly taken some of its customers away.
And, although Dish is certainly feeling the hole burning in their wallets, even streaming platforms are beginning to get a little greedy as the economy has been causing many subscribers to drop one or more of their subscriptions. With platforms like Netflix tightening their restrictions on password sharing, it appears that everyone is finding a way to make an extra buck or two. Along with cracking down on password sharing, other services are finding more ways to up their earnings, with many upping their prices and adding newly rolled out tiered levels.
Of those networks pumping up their prices, Paramount+ has recently joined the chat with HBO Max also cranking up their subscription plans, making their ad-free tier now clock in at a whopping $15.99 a month. Similarly, Hulu is charging ad-free subscribers $15.99 a month, which is considerably higher than the aforementioned Paramount+ which is giving viewers the option of ad-interrupted programming for only $5.99. With all of these choices, it’s no wonder that Dish Network is having a challenging time holding onto its subscribers.
While this last year was a particularly hard one for Dish Network, it’s our guess that 2023 won’t be any better for them. As the streaming wars rage on, those looking to save a few bucks would be best set with a low-tiered streaming option with ads and ditching the cable networks for good. What was once the biggest bragging right in the school is now quickly faltering and finding itself unable to compete with the ever-changing world. What a time to be alive!
