• by Wayne Friedman , March 2, 2009

Dish Network was a big loser on Monday, dropping 11% in midday trading over 11% from weak financial results. The satellite TV programming company lost 102,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, now at 13.7 million customers. Recently, AT&T--which had been selling the Dish service--ended its partnership, taking up with DirecTV, Dish's major competitor.

New telco IPTV video competitors from Verizon and AT&T have also hurt some video retailers. Blame also went to a weakening economy in which consumers are looking to cut home costs.

In midday trading, Dish's stock was trading at $10 a share.

The better news came from its net income in the fourth-quarter period, which climbed to $217 million from $175 million for the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the company was up 1% to $2.92 billion.

Its former parent company, EchoStar, lost major ground, sinking 9% to around $15 a share in midday trading; in the fourth quarter, it endured an almost $700 million net loss from one-time costs. This came from investment costs, as well as one-time costs of $247 million related to the acquisition of Sling Media.

EchoStar had a $45 million loss in the fourth-quarter 2007. Revenue rose to $496 million from $361 million last year. EchoStar spun off Dish in 2007, but it still sells equipment and satellite services to Dish.