Cable TV Vs Dish Network

Last year was not an exciting one for Dish Network; thousands of existing customers ditched their services. The major reason for this was the cost. Dish Network seems offer its services for a higher price than its competitors and even some cable companies. Some subscribers believe that they could subscribe to better packages for a smaller price if they ditched Dish Network and go for cable TV alternatives.

According to the surveys, Dish Network lost around 79,000 subscribers in 2014 alone. The number of subscribers who ditched the service in the first six months of 2015 was 46,000. In 2015, around 500,000 Pay-TV subscribers ditched their respective services owing to the increase in subscription charges.

The survey further indicates that the majority of the subscribers who ditch the Pay-TV services are opting in for cable TV alternative options such as Netflix. Similarly, companies like Charter Communications and Time Warner too are seeing an increase in the number of users coming in to opt for video subscription services. They hope to see a considerable increase in their subscriptions this year.

Dish Network, on the other hand, is not really reducing its service charges in order to gain customers. They have set their ARPU (average revenue per user) as $50 with some credit score. According to them, retaining the quality of the services is the most important thing and this cannot be done effectively by offering the services at cheaper rate.

In effect, Dish Network does not consider its shrinking number of consumers as a loss. They still survive in the market because of the good reputation for the services. Despite losing around 23,000 video subscribers in 2015, the company was able to increase its profit because of the increase in the ARPU.

According to the company, its ARPU increased by 2.3% (to $86.33) in last year. Furthermore, the loss of subscribers in the video services was not really los because the company had managed to include many of them into its alternative streaming platform Sling TV.

Whether the company will manage the cord-cutting trend will be determined by how effectively Sling TV will manage to attract subscribers. If it attracts customers in large numbers, Dish Network won’t be affected by the latest trend as other networks.

The competitor services are also trying to woo customers by introducing new packages that focus on high quality and reduced subscription rates. If customers welcome their plans, it would certainly be a loss for the Dish Network.