Satellite TV provider Dish Network may be having a decent quarter, but in the wake of their subscriber loss, future profits may be iffy.

Subscribers for Dish Network reported a net loss of 135,000 subscribers in the second quarter, whittling their customer base down to 14.1 billion. Dish blames continual pressure from the competition. Thus, the company has decided to freeze its prices until January 2013.

Reuters reported that Verizon and AT&T (News - Alert) are heavy contenders, offering extreme discounts to lure customers away from Dish and DirecTV and other cable providers.

Of course, Reuters pointed out that “cord cutting,” a phenomenon in which subscribers are ditching their TV services altogether in favor of utilizing cheaper forms of entertainment, particularly services from Netflix, Hulu and YouTube (News - Alert), is also to blame for TV providers’ woes.

“A resurrection of the cord-cutting thesis seems almost inevitable here,” said Bernstein Research's Craig Moffett in a note. “Rising prices for pay TV, coupled with growing availability of lower cost alternatives, add to a toxic mix at a time when disposable income isn't growing,” Reuters (News - Alert) reported.

According to a study by Pew Internet, movie and TV show video viewing rose from 16 percent to 32 percent of adult Internet users and that was in 2010. As online content becomes more widely available, the need for cable boxes and a subscription are becoming more obsolete.

The Associated Press reported that analysts view this trend as bad for not only the cable companies, but the subscribers as well. They feel it will lead to “more restrictions” and more expensive packages for online video viewing and broadband access as the need for more bandwidth increases.

Analysts feel that the economy, coupled with increasing fees are to blame for all the subscriber losses. 13 percent of U.S. households that don't subscribe to some form of pay-TV service, about 60 percent have broadband. Online video is not a found variable as a reason for dropped subs.

“It is erroneous to think of this group as making decisions driven by online video,” said Bruce Leichtman, president of Leichtman Research Group Inc., reported AP. “These decisions tend to be more based on economics.”

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