Sorry, DISH, this isn’t a reality show. DISH revealed its first-ever quarterly loss of subscribers, losing 25K subscribers in 2Q08. Seems like the competitive heat continues to rise for them. They’re losing subscribers to the competition, but also to an anemic housing sector, where slower housing starts and soaring foreclosure rates are creating a perfect storm that negatively impacts subscriber growth. It will be interesting to compare these results to DirecTV’s, since DISH cites HD competition as a reason for their decline as well. It makes their HD announcement from earlier this week all the more important. DISH will have its challenges to reverse the trend. It’s particularly scary for them because they are seen as a “value” play against their competitors. If these hard economic times don’t push subscribers to DISH over their more expensive competitors, what will?
