Dish, Charter Customer Losses Fuel Pay-TV Merger Speculation

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Dish Network Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. posted second-quarter results hurt by video-subscriber defections and programming costs, fueling speculation they’ll seek mergers to improve results.

Dish, the third-largest U.S. pay-TV company by customers, and Charter, the eighth-biggest, both may look to combine with competitors as a way to gain leverage in negotiations with TV networks to carry their programming, according to Paul Sweeney, an analyst at Bloomberg Industries. Both companies reported second-quarter losses today.