• by Wayne Friedman , February 23, 2012

Dish Network got a double dose of good news from its fourth-quarter 2011 business results -- more subscribers and higher profit.

Dish added 22,000 subscribers for a total of 13.97 million, reversing a 111,000 net loss of subscribers in the third quarter of 2011. For 2011, Dish still had a net loss of 166,000 subscribers.

The company gained net quarter earnings of 24% to $313 million. Revenue grew 13% to $3.63 billion.

Dish says this was due to its purchase of Blockbuster and starting up its new Blockbuster streaming video service. Dish now offers the Blockbuster service in a package that includes Dish's satellite video service.

"By introducing new Blockbuster-branded services, we've begun to turn the tide in subscriber losses, while continuing to face increased competitive pressures," stated Joe Clayton, president/CEO of Dish Network.

Streaming video service businesses are growing. Earlier this week, Comcast launched its Xfinity Streampix service to compete with Netflix, according to analysts.

Last year, Dish acquired the brick-and-mortar video-rental chain Blockbuster out of bankruptcy and launched a Blockbuster-branded streaming service in October.

In mid-day trading, Dish Network's stock was up 3% to $30.01.