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November 7, 2025
Sling TV, a pioneer in EchoStar’s virtual multichannel video program distribution (vMVPD), grew its paid subscriber base 11% to 1.99 million in the third quarter ended September 30, up from 1.79 million subscribers in the year-ago period.
EchoStar’s Dish brand lost 152,000 satellite TV subscribers to end the period with 5.2 million. EchoStar combines the two platforms for 7.17 million subs combined, up 1.3% from 7.07 million the year before.
Sling benefited during the quarter from the rollout of daily, weekend, and weekly subscription tiers starting at $5, targeting the start of the college, NFL, and NBA seasons.
The commercial satellite and vMVPD segments generated approximately $2.34 billion in revenue for the third quarter.
Meanwhile, EchoStar co-founder Charlie Ergen took over as CEO, while former CEO Hamid Akhavan was named CEO of EchoStar Capital.
The move comes after EchoStar’s spectrum sales deals – one with AT&T for $22.65 billion and the other with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $19 billion.
The transactions were instrumental in resolving the FCC’s review of the company’s use of spectrum. Following announcements of the transactions, the FCC confirmed that EchoStar had satisfied all 5G network development requirements and that other related obligations had been fully satisfied. Additionally, EchoStar announced an amended agreement with SpaceX to sell its unpaired AWS-3 wireless spectrum for $2.6 billion in SpaceX stock.
“Through EchoStar Capital, we will fuel EchoStar’s growth in new and complementary areas beyond its satellite, streaming, wireless and enterprise business units,” Akhavan said in a statement. “This is an opportune time for our company to go on the offensive as we build on our 45-year institutional heritage and forge a new path to create and grow opportunities in our areas of strategic expertise that will provide compelling value creation for EchoStar and its shareholders.”
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