• by Wayne Friedman , February 20, 2013

Dish Network's fourth-quarter and 2012 net income took a hit due to higher programming costs and a big litigation settlement.

Net income was less than half of its results in 2011 -- $637 million versus $1.5 billion. Net income in the fourth quarter of 2012 was down about a third to $209 million from $313 million in the fourth quarter.

The litigation settlement involved AMC's Voom HD network, for which Dish terminated its distribution agreement with the network in 2008. The settlement had Dish paying $700 million in cash. The legal snafu between the two companies also had Dish taking AMC Network off the air for a long period in 2012.

Plus, Dish was hit in 2011 with reversal of expenses related to the company's TiVo litigation. Revenue for the fourth quarter was slightly down to nearly $3.6 billion, compared with $3.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. Full-year revenue was up slightly -- 1.6%, to almost $14.3 billion.

On the positive side, Dish made gains during the year -- adding 89,000 net subscribers after having lost about 166,000 net subscribers in 2011.

For the fourth quarter, Dish added about 14,000 net new subscribers. It ended 2012 with 14.056 million subscribers compared to 13.967 million total subscribers in 2011.

Dish added about 78,000 net broadband subscribers in 2012, compared to a loss of approximately 5,000 subscribers in 2011.

Dish Network's stock price was up 0.5% in midday trading to $36.28.

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