• by Wayne Friedman , May 11, 2009

Dish Network's stock rocketed up over 20% on midday trading on strong earnings results, bucking analysts' expectations.

In the wake of other negative media company financial reports, TV satellite distributor Dish Network improved its net income take 21% to $313 million in its first quarter. Revenues inched up 2.1% to $2.91 billion versus $2.84 billion for the corresponding period in 2008.

The negative news: Dish Network lost about 94,000 net subscribers. But analysts were expecting a lot worse, predicting a loss of 128,000 subscribers. Dish ended the first quarter with 13.6 million. Still, one cause of alarm to analysts is that Dish has 1.7% fewer subscribers than a year ago.

Dish also reduced costs, with the average cost to acquire each customer falling to $659, from $709 a year earlier.

The market responded, pushing the company's stock in midday trading to $18.39 -- up $3.04.

One consumer deal pushing Dish was a steeply discounted $9.99-per-month promotion for six months, which company officials said should result in increased subscribers in the second and third quarters.