Newsletter
Sling TV now has 2.69 million subscribers.
Dish Network confirmed the latest results as part of its third quarter earnings report.
The figure represents the boost Sling TV had been waiting for.
Sling TV stops stagnating
Over the past few quarters, there’s been some uncertainty surrounding Sling TV’s capability for growth.
For example, last quarter the figure stood at 2.4 million. That’s largely the same figure it stood at the quarter before that. The trend appeared to be Sling TV was slowing down and seeing minimal growth quarter over quarter, if any.
That’s now changed. This latest results highlight the streaming service gained more than 200,000 subscribers in the last three months alone.
That’s a significant improvement on recent results, and bucks what was quickly becoming a bleak-looking trend.
Sling still number one, but for how long?
While Sling TV appeared to be in a rut, others were not. Both Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV are understood to have been gaining subscribers quarter over quarter, and for some time.
In Hulu’s case in particular, the number of gains appeared to be highly impressive. So much so that Hulu + Live TV was thought to be hot on the heels of Sling TV and vying for that coveted top spot.
It still remains unclear just how many subscribers Hulu + live TV now has, but this Sling TV boost has come just at the right time.
It is also likely to be enough to keep Sling TV in the running as the live TV streaming service with the most subscribers in the U.S.
That is, when it comes to official numbers, at least.
Not great news overall for Dish, however
While it will be welcomed news to Dish that Sling TV picked up a decent number of subscribers in the third quarter. The same cannot be said for Dish’s TV business overall.
In the same release, Dish says it gained 148,000 subscribers during the third quarter. That’s the overall figure covering all its pay-TV services. Considering that number is lower than the Sling TV net gains, it is clear Dish TV continued to lose subscribers during the last quarter.
By comparison, it is still a good quarter, however. Dish was quick to point out how this overall gain compares to the same time the year before. In the third quarter of 2018, Dish lost 341,000 pay-TV subscribers.
Dish can be thankful for Sling TV for that year over year turnaround.