Dish net income more than doubles in 1Q

ENGLEWOOD, Colo, May 3 (AP): Dish Network Corp, the nation's second-largest satellite TV broadcaster, reported Monday that its first-quarter net income more than doubled, helped by a patent settlement with TiVo Inc. The Englewood, Colo, company also added a net 58,000 subscribers after three quarters of losses, bringing its total to 14.2 million. Net income rose to $549 million, or $1.22 per share. That was up from $231 million, or 52 cents per share, a year earlier. The latest figure was boosted by $335 million that Dish is taking back from a fund it established to meet the cost of a patent lawsuit filed by TiVo Inc, the maker of digital video recorders. The companies announced Monday that they had settled the suit for a total of $500 million. Dish is initially paying TiVo $290 million, and had $517 million in the fund. EchoStar Corp, a Dish spin-off that makes set-top boxes, was also party to the suit and is paying TiVo about $10 million initially.