EchoStar Corporation, the parent company of DISH Network and Sling TV, reported a staggering loss of 290,000 pay-TV subscribers in the second quarter of 2025, marking a significant escalation in the company’s ongoing struggle to retain customers in a rapidly evolving media landscape. This follows a loss of 383,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2025, bringing the total subscriber decline to over 1 million for the first half of the year. The company’s pay-TV segment generated approximately $2.46 billion in revenue for Q2, reflecting a continued downward trend from the $2.5 billion reported in Q1 2025, which was already down 7.4% from the previous year.
In total DISH and Sling TV now have 7.11 million subscribers. Dish’s press release did not breakdown the losses of Sling TV vs DISH.
The second-quarter subscriber hemorrhage represents continued losses for EchoStar’s with DISH’s satellite TV service and Sling TV’s streaming platform both shedding customers at an alarming rate. Industry analysts attribute the losses to intensifying competition from streaming giants like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube TV, as well as shifting consumer preferences toward on-demand and ad-supported free streaming options. The cord-cutting trend, coupled with rising subscription costs, has hit traditional and virtual pay-TV providers hard, and EchoStar appears to be bearing the brunt of this transformation.
In Q1 2025, EchoStar’s pay-TV subscriber base fell from 7.78 million to approximately 7.4 million, with DISH TV reporting its lowest churn rate in over a decade at 1.36%, excluding the COVID-19 period. However, the Q2 results suggest that efforts to stabilize churn have faltered, with an estimated 6.73 million subscribers remaining by the end of June 2025. While exact breakdowns for DISH and Sling TV losses in Q2 were not disclosed, historical trends indicate DISH’s satellite service likely accounted for the majority, given its larger subscriber base of 5.5 million compared to Sling’s 1.89 million as of May 2025.
Despite the subscriber drop, EchoStar highlighted a 3% increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) in Q1, a trend likely sustained into Q2 through price adjustments and a focus on higher-value customers. However, the $2.46 billion in Q2 revenue underscores the financial toll of losing over 8% of the subscriber base in a single quarter.
“EchoStar performed well in the second quarter and was in line with our high performance expectations,” said Hamid Akhavan, president and CEO, EchoStar Corporation. “Our Retail Wireless business continues to make progress and we have now had five consecutive quarters of growth with our Boost Mobile brand. Our Pay-TV ARPU and churn rate improvement continues to impress, and our enterprise business is gaining ground globally within the aviation sector as the industry’s only future-proof in-flight connectivity solution.”
EchoStar’s challenges are compounded by a looming merger with DirecTV, announced in September 2024, which aims to create the largest U.S. TV provider but faces regulatory hurdles and a projected close in late 2025. The company also grapples with significant debt, reportedly missing over $500 million in interest payments, fueling speculation of a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
As EchoStar battles to retain its pay-TV foothold, the Q2 2025 results paint a grim picture of an industry in flux, with traditional providers struggling to adapt to a streaming-dominated future.
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