• by Wayne Friedman , May 3, 2019

Although Dish continued to be hit by more subscriber losses in the first quarter, revenue and net income were in line with expectations, per its financial report late Thursday.

Revenue fell 8% to $3.19 billion from $3.46 billion. Stock-market investors pushed up Dish Network's stock early on Friday, with its price rising 3.7% to $34.83.

Dish ended the quarter with 12.1 million total pay-TV subscribers -- 9.6 million from Dish TV satellite subscribers and 2.4 million from Sling TV subscribers. Dish’s overall subscribers dropped to 259,000, compared to a 94,000 decline in last year's quarter. Analysts were expecting a decline of 242,000.

Big declines were anticipated as a result of dropping Spanish-language channel Univision and AT&T Inc-owned premium cable network HBO during the period.

Sling TV added just 7,000 subscribers in the period. That's well below the 91,000 subscribers it added last year.

Dish’s net income was $340 million, compared to $368 million from the year-ago quarter.