Dish Network Corp. posted a fourth-quarter profit of 14 percent today while also adding 85,000 new subscribers during the quarter.

With the fourth-quarter additions, Dish finished 2007 with 13.78 million subscribers, which is an increase of 675,000 compared with 2006.

While large cable operators such as Comcast have seen their basic subscriber numbers drop, Dish said in its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing (available here) that even though its subscribers increased last year, subscriber growth was lower than it had been in the past.

Dish’s fourth-quarter income was $175 million, or 39 cents per share, compared with $153 million, or 35 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2006. The company’s revenue increased 12 percent year-over-year, to $2.89 billion, from $2.58 billion.

For 2007, Dish reported a net income of $756 million, or $1.69 per share, compared with a net income of $608 million, or $1.37 per share, in 2006.

Dish Network, the nation’s second-largest satellite provider, was spun off from EchoStar Communications Corp. on Jan. 1 (story here). A week later, EchoStar hired Dean Olmstead as the company's president of satellite services (story here).

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