In the wake of DirecTV’s recent announcement that subscribers to its pay TV services could choose less expensive programming packages without local broadcast stations, Dish has responded by reminding consumers that it has offered this option for the last seven years.
“In light of recent news regarding DirecTV's introduction of its new opt-out feature for local channels, it's important to highlight that Dish has been offering this capability to customers for the last seven years,” Dish said. “Dish firmly believes in empowering its subscribers with the ability to customize their viewing experience according to their preferences.”
Both companies have been involved with extensive retransmission disputes with local broadcast station groups in recent years. While cord-cutting has hurt the entire pay-TV industry, satellite operators like Dish and DirecTV have been particularly impacted because they can’t effectively bundle high-speed broadband services with their video packages the way cable and telco operators do.
The Leichtman Research Group (LRG) estimates that DirecTV lost 1.8 million subs in 2023 while public financial statements filed by Dish indicate it lost 945,000.
Dish ended 2023 with 6,471,000 satellite subs, down from a peak of 14.1 million satellite subs in 2010.
In 2023, Dish and DirecTV accounted for more than half (2.75 million) of the 5 million subs lost by major pay TV operations, LRG reported.
