Both satellite companies grew their subscriber base by around 13 percent over the last year, but there are signs that the rate of growth may be slowing. EchoStar, the second-largest satellite broadcaster in the United States, added 225,000 subscribers to its Dish Network in the last quarter, bringing the total number of subscribers to 11.46 million. Rival DirecTV added the same number of new customers in the United States over the same period, taking its total subscriber base to 14.67 million. The company signed 964,000 subscribers in the quarter, but the number of net additions was down on the same period the previous year, due to slightly higher churn. EchoStar reported total revenue of $2.1 billion for the three months to the end of June, up 18 percent on the corresponding period the previous year, with a net income of $856 million, ten times more than for the same period the preceding year. DirecTV revenues for the same period were $3.18 billion, with a net income of $162 million, the first profit in two years, compared to a loss of $13.3 million a year ago.
The global streaming industry has spent the better part of a decade chasing subscriber counts as the primary metric of success. That era is now formally over. New market data from Omdia confirms that the industry has crossed a decisive threshold; one that shifts the competitive playing field from growth-at-all-costs to monetization discipline. For senior executives navigating media, advertising, and technology strategy, the implications extend well beyond entertainment. A Historic Revenue Crossover Online video revenue increased 13.5 percent to $176 billion in 2025, while pay-TV revenue declined 4 percent to $170 billion; marking the first time in the industry's history that streaming has surpassed legacy pay-TV in revenue terms. This is not a rounding error or a statistical artifact; it represents the culmination of more than a decade of structural disruption to the traditional broadcast and cable TV model. Global subscriptions to online video services reached 2.24 billion by the ...