[Satellite TODAY 05-11-10] EchoStar Corp. 2010 first quarter revenues increased 31 percent to $627 million, which enabled the company to produce a net income of $72 million during the quarter, EchoStar announced in its latest financial results, released May 10.
    EchoStar said the quarter marks a turnaround for the company, as the operator rebounds from a net loss of $1 million reported during the corresponding period in 2009. Results were driven by increased capacity sales and demand from companies that manage U.S. government networks for unmanned aerial vehicles.
The operator also saw increased activity and future projections for its AMC-15 and AMC-16 satellites delivering the ViP-TV platform.
    EchoStar’s sister company, Dish Network, reported a 26 percent drop in its 2010 first-quarter profits from $313 million in 2009 to $231 million, despite generating a 5.2 percent increase in total revenues at $3.06 billion and gaining about 237,000 net subscribers during the quarter.
    However, the pay-TV satellite provider said the quarter marks some drastic improvements for the company as it lowered its customer turnover rate to 1.4 percent and increasing its total cash reserve to cover potential damages to $424 million due to its service rate increases. Dish Network ends the quarter with approximately 14.337 million total subscribers.