Number of Dish Network's subscribers 2011-2020

Data on the number of Dish Network's subscribers from 2011 to 2020 shows a gradual decrease in pay TV subscribers from 2013 onwards. In that year, the company had over 14 million subscribers, but this had dropped to just under 11.3 million by the end 2020.

Dish Network - additional information

Subscription television, sometimes simply named pay TV or premium, refers to broadcasting services provided by cable and satellite TV companies or digital and internet television providers. As of Q3 2018, 21 percent of all households worldwide only had pay TV, while only 16 percent of American households subscribed to such services exclusivly. In 2015, revenue generated from premium services in North America alone was estimated at an unprecedented 108.58 billion U.S. dollars, although this figure is predicted to fall by 2026.

Dish Network is a DBS service provider headquartered in Meridian, Colorado, United States. It was launched in March 1996 and presently provides satellite television, audio programming, satellite internet, and interactive television services. The company’s service area is limited to the United States, where the number of Dish Network customers stood at 8.82 million in Q4 2020. As of 2018, Dish had a 15.2 percent share of the United States Pay TV market, while the broadcaster’s main competitor, DirecTV, owned 21 percent.

Both Dish Network and DirecTV are perpetually trying to stay relevant, offering competitive prices, a diversified range of channels, and an array of hardware products, such as Dish’s portable satellite antenna (Tailgater) or its digital video recorder (Hopper). However, according to market experts, the subscription television model is falling out of grace among Americans, due in part to the rise of Netflix and Hulu, as well as to the high availability of online streaming services.