Dish Network ended 2022 with some of the most downer data the U.S. pay TV business has ever seen, losing another 191,000 satellite TV customers and 77,000 virtual Sling TV subscribers in the final three months of the year. Dish, which won’t formally announce 4Q earnings until sometime next month, made the disclosure in an SEC filing Tuesday, in conjunction with the revelation of a $500 million secured debt offering.
The streaming business is about to get a lot more expensive, if early signs of subscriber interest in premium content on HBO Max and Disney Plus force competitors to ante up to attract and keep subscribers. The question is, can the legacy media companies spend enough on streaming content to keep pace with Netflix’s global audience and the near-bottomless wallets of Apple and Amazon.
