• by Wayne Friedman , February 19, 2020

Dish Network trimmed its total subscriber losses in the fourth quarter for all its pay TV business -- showing a slight rise in Sling TV subscribers versus the same period a year before.

Pay TV subscribers declined 194,000 compared to a decrease of 334,000 in the year-ago quarter. The company had 12 million pay TV subscribers at the end of the year.

The decline can largely be attributed to its Dish TV satellite business, which is down 2% to 9.4 million from 9.64 million.

Sling TV, its virtual pay TV provider, was up 8% in subscribers to 2.59 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 --  although it has declined from the previous period with 2.69 million in the third quarter of 2019.

For the 2019 year, Dish’s marketing efforts -- its “subscriber acquisition advertising” -- grew to $519.9 million, versus $426.2 million in 2018.

Although total company revenue was slightly lower -- down 2% to $3.24 billion in the period -- net income attributable to the company was up 15% to $389 million.

The average rate per user (ARPU) grew to $87.02 a month from $85.03 a month in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Dish improved on analysts estimates. Wednesday trading of Dish stock was up 1.2% to $41.78.