NEW YORK — Satellite TV provider EchoStar Communications late Friday reported a 43% increase in its third-quarter profit on higher revenue driven by subscriber gains.
However, subscriber growth fell well behind the year-ago period and competitor DirecTV as user turnover rose significantly.
Echostar also warned that economic conditions and competition could dampen its future performance.
The company’s third-quarter profit of $200 million was up from $140 million in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 12.9% to $2.8 billion.
EchoStar added approximately 110,000 net new subscribers during the third quarter, down sharply from the 295,000 additions in the year-ago period.
As of Sept. 30, Echostar had nearly 13.7 million users.
Earlier in the week, DirecTV Group had recorded net subscriber adds of 240,000 for its third quarter.
Unlike its competitor, Echostar suffered from higher customer turnover in the latest period as its churn rate jumped from 1.76% to 1.94%.
In a regulatory filing, the company mentioned competition from bundled services offered by cable operators as one current challenge.
