Dish Network's revenue disappoints again

(Reuters) - Dish Network Corp's revenue missed analysts' estimates for the fifth straight quarter, as it earned less than expected from its customers.

Dish, like other pay-TV providers, has faced a growing trend of cord-cutting, where consumers move away from satellite TV packages to online streaming services such as Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc's Amazon Prime.

Dish said it added 160,000 subscribers for Sling TV in the fourth quarter and lost 121,000 DISH TV subscribers, breaking out customer details for streaming service for the first time.

Jefferies analyst Scott Goldman said that the numbers for both services beat his estimates, but that Dish's average revenue per user of $84.63 was below his estimate of $85.71 and Wall Street estimate of $86.10.

Subscribers to Sling TV, which offers Internet-based American, international and Latino video programming services, on average purchase lower-priced programming services than DISH TV subscribers.

Dish's revenue fell 7.2 to $3.48 billion in the fourth quarter, missing analysts average estimate of $3.53 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company added about 39,000 pay-TV subscriber on a net basis in the fourth quarter, including 75,000 reactivations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that were removed after Hurricane Maria.

The company closed the quarter with 13.24 million Pay-TV subscribers, including 11.03 million for DISH TV and 2.21 million for Sling.

Net income attributable to Dish rose to $1.39 billion from $355 million a year earlier, due to a roughly $1.2 billion benefit related to U.S. tax law reforms.

Excluding that and other one-time items, Dish earned 57 cents per share, topping analysts estimated by 2 cents.

The company's shares were little changed at $44.54 in morning trading.

(Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)