Increased competition in video streaming is causing Sling TV to lose subscribers.
In last year’s fourth quarter, the service lost 94,000 subscribers, Dish Network said in the company’s earnings report—the first time Sling TV has ever reported negative customer growth in a three-month period since it launched in 2015.
But customer growth has slowed. In 2019, the live TV service added only 175,000 new subscribers, down from the 711,000 Sling TV reported for 2017. However, since then competition in the streaming space has only intensified, which led to the recent loss in subscribers, Dish Network CEO Erik Carlson said during today's earnings call.
Carlson refrained from naming the competition. But in November, Disney launched its own streaming service, which has attracted 28.6 million subscribers. Sling TV, on the other hand, only has 2.59 million customers.
“The streaming ecosystem is changing quite a bit,” Carlson said during the call while noting Sony recently decided to shut down its own streaming service, PlayStation Vue, due to the growing competition.
In December, Sling TV also announced a $5 price hike, which may have also led to a loss in subscribers, according to Sling TV President Warren Schlichting. Both Sling Blue and Sling Orange plans now cost $30 a month.
However, Dish Network doesn't plan on making any immediate changes to the service after one bad quarter. “We like our position. We like our bundle," Schlichting said during the call. "We may not be everything to everybody, but we like where we are. We are taking a disciplined approach."
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