Dish loses fewer pay-TV subscribers than expected

(Reuters) - Dish Network Corp <DISH.O> beat estimates for quarterly revenue on Monday, as the U.S. satellite TV service provider lost fewer pay-TV subscribers than analysts had expected.

The earnings announcement comes just a few days after Dish agreed to buy prepaid businesses from T-Mobile US Inc <TMUS.O> and Sprint <S.N>, including Boost Mobile, to create a fourth U.S. wireless carrier. Dish will pay $1.4 billion for the prepaid businesses with cash on hand, Dish founder Charlie Ergen said in a conference call with analysts.

Dish said its pay-TV business, comprising satellite TV and Sling TV, lost a net 31,000 subscribers during the second quarter, far less than analysts' estimate of a loss of 252,000, according to research firm FactSet.

As people increasingly switch to online video streaming services such as Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> and Amazon.com Inc's <AMZN.O> Prime Video, Dish's efforts to lure viewers to its online streaming service Sling TV has paid off.

Net income attributable to Dish fell to $317 million, or 60 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $439 million, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 65 cents per share on revenue of $3.14 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Revenue fell about 7% to $3.21 billion.

On Friday, T-Mobile won U.S. antitrust approval for its $26 billion takeover of rival Sprint after the two companies agreed to divest assets to Dish to create a new wireless carrier.

The Justice Department indicated the deal would improve competition and the rollout of faster 5G networks by combining weaker players and creating a strong, new No. 4, in Dish, that has unused spectrum, or airwaves that carry data, which can be activated.

Along with Boost, Dish has also agreed to acquire more spectrum in a deal valued at $3.6 billion from the merged firm. Dish will get access to the new T-Mobile’s network for seven years while it builds its own 5G network.

Dish shares fell 0.7% at $38.28 in extended trade on Monday.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Angela Moon in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Lisa Shumaker)