TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: EchoStar Grosses $102M in 3Q Earnings

EchoStar Grosses $102M in 3Q Earnings

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Wed, 10 Nov 2004 01:39:14 -0500

By SANDY SHORE AP Business Writer

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) -- EchoStar Communications Corp. on Tuesday
reported its third-quarter earnings nearly tripled as the parent
company of Dish Network, the nation's second largest satellite TV
service, added about 350,000 new subscribers.

The company also said it would pay a one-time dividend of $1 a share,
or a total of $455 million, next month.

Based in suburban Englewood, EchoStar said its net income was $102
million, or 22 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30. That
was up from $35 million, or 7 cents per share, during the same period
in 2003. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected EchoStar to
earn 23 cents per share.

Revenue totaled $1.86 billion, a 28 percent increase over $1.45
billion during last year's third quarter.

EchoStar said it had approximately 10.5 million subscribers at the end
of the quarter, but reported its churn rate, reflecting the number of
subscribers who dropped service, rose to 1.77 percent from 1.72
percent in the previous quarter.

In addition, EchoStar said its average subscriber acquisition cost was
$421 per subscriber, down from $466 in the third quarter of 2003.
EchoStar attributed the drop partially to equipment costs. With more
subscribers leasing equipment, the company said it can recover those
boxes and reuse them when customers drop the service.

- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=44878006

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