"The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption," says the company in reporting quarterly drops in traditional pay TV and streaming customers, but also notes"positive" factors.
The latest quarter's figure included the loss of 40,000 net subscribers to the traditional Dish pay TV service, compared with a year-ago loss of 79,000, and the loss of approximately 56,000 net subscribers to the Sling TV streaming service, a swing from a year-ago gain of 48,000 customers. "The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption in certain commercial segments served by Dish, including the hospitality and airline industries," said Dish, led by chairman Charlie Ergen and CEO Erik Carlson. "As a result, Dish paused service or provided temporary rate relief for approximately 250,000 commercial accounts and removed those accounts from its ending pay TV subscriber count as of March 31, 2020.