Dish Network

DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. Additionally, Dish offers mobile wireless service, Dish Wireless. On July 1, 2020, Dish acquired prepaid service Boost Mobile and intends to add postpaid service as well in the future. Based out of unincorporated Douglas County, Colorado the company has approximately 16,000 employees.

History

In January 2008, EchoStar Communications Corporation, which was founded by Charlie Ergen as a satellite television equipment distributor in 1980, changed its name to DISH Network Corporation and spun off its technology arm as a new company named EchoStar Corporation. The company had begun using DISH Network as its consumer brand in 1996, after the launch of its first satellite, EchoStar I, in December 1995. That launch marked the beginning of its subscription television services.

Joseph Clayton became president and chief executive officer of the company in June 2011, while Charlie Ergen remained chairman. Clayton remained in the position until March 31, 2015, when he retired, leaving Ergen to resume the post. Ergen has said diversifying and updating technology for the company will be a high priority, with an expectation that, over the coming decade, the company will provide internet, video, and telephone service for both home and mobile applications. In December 2017, DISH Network announced that Ergen would step down and be replaced by Erik Carlson.

, the company provided services to 13.7 million television and 580,000 broadband subscribers.

Founding and early growth

Dish Network began operations on March 4, 1996, as a service of EchoStar. EchoStar was formed in 1980 by its chairman and chief executive officer, Charlie Ergen, along with colleagues Candy Ergen and Jim DeFranco, as a distributor of C-band satellite television systems. In 1987, EchoStar applied for a direct-broadcast satellite broadcast license with the FCC and was granted access to orbital slot 119° west longitude in 1992.

On December 7, 2007, EchoStar announced it would spin off its technology and infrastructure assets into a separate company under the EchoStar name, after which the remainder of the company would be renamed DISH Network Corporation. The spun-off EchoStar began trading on January 3, 2008.

Acquisitions and expansion

In 2011, Dish Network spent over $3 billion in acquisitions of companies in bankruptcy, which The Motley Fool's Anders Bylund described as "a veritable buying rampage in the bargain bin." This includes the April 6, 2011, purchase of Blockbuster Inc. in a bankruptcy auction in New York, agreeing to pay $322 million in cash and assume $87 million in liabilities and other obligations for the nationwide video-rental company. DISH Network also acquired the defunct companies DBSD and Terrestar. Dish Network also made a bid to purchase Hulu in October 2011, but Hulu's owners chose not to sell the company. There was also speculation that DISH Network might purchase Sprint Nextel or Clearwire. In 2013, Dish made a bid for both companies. CEO Charles Ergen plans on adding wireless internet and mobile video services that can compete with Netflix and cable companies. About the new markets, Ergen said, "Given the assets we've been accumulating, I don't think it's hard to see we're moving in a different direction from simply pay-TV, which is a market that's becoming increasingly saturated."

Dish Network put its Blockbuster acquisition to work by making available Dish Movie Pack for Dish Network subscribers and Sling TV for non-Dish Network subscribers. Blockbuster also has agreements that allow it to receive movies 28 days before Netflix and Redbox which could encourage customers to use these services.

Dish Network also plans on offering high-speed internet. The company plans a hybrid satellite/terrestrial mobile broadband service. In 2011, it petitioned the FCC to combine the S-Band spectrum it acquired from DBSD and Terrestar, and combine this spectrum with LTE. Unlike LightSquared, Dish's spectrum has minimal risk of disrupting Global Positioning Systems.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Dish Network announced a corporate rebranding, under which the company would publicly refer to itself as just "Dish" rather than "Dish Network".

After changing the position of a satellite orbital position from being over Mexico to Brazil in 2011, Dish Network sought companies that could make a deal, among them Telefónica. However, nothing ever came of this, and DISH decided to enter the country itself. According to the Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications (Anatel), they awaited the authorization of the application. In June 2019, nonetheless, DISH TV accepted to resign its satellite exploration rights assigned to EchoStar and thus ending the possibility of entering the Brazilian market.

On July 26, 2019, Dish announced it had reached an agreement with T-Mobile and Sprint to sell Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, Sprint's prepaid businesses, for $1.4 billion to DISH Network. They will also sell Dish $3.6 billion of 800 MHz spectrum, Sprint's entire 800 MHz portfolio. DISH customers will be able to use the New T-Mobile Network for seven years. DISH and T-Mobile are currently negotiating the lease of 20,000 cell sites and hundreds of retail stores being decommissioned by the New T-Mobile. The deal for the purchase of all of Sprint's prepaid businesses, including Boost, officially closed on July 1, 2020.

On May 20, 2019, EchoStar announced that it had reached an agreement with DISH to transfer the portion of that company's business which managed and provided broadcast satellite services, referred to as the BSS (Broadcast Satellite Services) business, to DISH in order to concentrate on broadband services and other initiatives. The transaction was completed on September 10, 2019.

Disputes and lawsuits

DISH and its subsidiaries have faced legal action for some of its questionable practices, including fines for telemarketing tactics such as failure to disclose fees with full transparency.

DISH has been sued and countersued dozens of times. DISH argues that effective litigation is important to corporate operations. One such lawsuit was DISH's use of their Hopper DVR to make it easy for viewers to erase commercials.

Removal of regional sports programming

Dish Network has always refused to carry some of the higher-priced regional sports networks, most notably AT&T SportsNet Southwest, YES Network, and Spectrum SportsNet, which have never been available on Dish. The contract of the entire MSG Network had ended on October 1, 2010, early; CSN New England was dropped on August 6, 2014. In July 2019 Dish removed the entire slate of Fox Sports Networks channels (which have since been re-branded as Bally Sports). This was the beginning of a trend with Altitude being removed in August and NBC Sports Chicago in October of that year. On April 1, 2021, Dish removed the remaining NBC Sports Regional Networks and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. Dish Network president Brian Neylon commented that "The current RSN model is fundamentally broken,” stating that he was in favor of offering the networks as an a la carte service. Six months later (October 1, 2021), Dish removed entire AT&T SportsNet channel.

The last remaining regional sports network, NESN was removed on December 20, 2021.

Services and devices

DISH's main service is satellite television and its offerings are comparable to other satellite and cable companies. Viewers can choose from a series of service bundles, paying more money for more channels. A la carte programming is available, however limited to premium channels such as HBO or Showtime. The company is currently working on diversifying its offerings. With its purchase of Blockbuster LLC, DISH owns the Blockbuster trademarks and has used its intellectual property agreement to offer streaming and mail-order video services.

DishNET

On September 27, 2012, DISH Network announced a satellite broadband service called DishNET, aimed at rural areas where cable is often not available.

Wireless

In 2019, DISH entered an agreement as part of the Sprint