dish network

History

EchoStar was formed in 1980 by its Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen as a distributor of C band TV systems.

On 28 December 1995, EchoStar successfully launched its first satellite, EchoStar I. The launch of Echostar I was a gamble in that it was one of the first successful commercial launches from China after a series of spectacular failures. That same year, EchoStar established the DISH Network brand name to market its home satellite TV system. The company used "DISH" as an acronym for Digital Sky Highway.^[1]

In 2003, DISH Network began providing in-flight satellite TV service to the U.S. airline Song. In 2004, selected music channels from Sirius Satellite Radio were added to DISH Network's lineup of audio-only channels that already include Muzak audio services for both households and businesses.

DISH Network was also partnered with Starband to deliver broadband satellite Internet service along with its television service. The partnership ended in 2003. Currently, DISH Network has partnership agreements with a number of local telephone providers to cross-market DSL and DISH Network services. In June 2006, Dish Network signed an agreement to partner with WildBlue to deliver broadband via satellite.

On 4 January 2006, EchoStar announced that DISH Network surpassed 12 million paid subscribers. In the last five years, DISH Network added more than 6.74 million net new customers, more than all other satellite TV and cable companies during the same period.

Each month, DISH Network broadcasts a show titled Charlie Chat, which features news about upcoming hardware, programming events, and new channels. Company CEO Charlie Ergen and Jim De Franco host the show and take questions from e-mail and live callers. On 13 March 2006, a special 90-minute edition of "Charlie Chats" aired at 9 p.m. (Eastern time) to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the launch of the DISH Network to its customers.

Since its launch in 1996, 30 million viewers in 12 million households have subscribed at some point in time to DISH Network programming.

Removal of channels

In October 2005, DISH Network dropped OLN (now known as Versus). Comcast, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based cable provider that owned OLN, refused to provide its National Hockey League coverage to DISH Network, because it was not available on a sufficiently high-penetration tier. DISH Network then removed OLN from its lineup indefinitely, claiming that customers would eventually have to pay more for a service that few of its 12 million customers actually watched. On April 24, 2006 DISH Network and OLN reached a long term agreement to carry the channel once more.

On 1 January 2006, DISH Network cut service of two additional channels to its subscribers: Lifetime Television, and its sister network Lifetime Movie Network. According to DISH Network, Lifetime demanded a 70% price increase of its programming, whereas Lifetime claimed the increase was only pennies. The companies came to an agreement and restored the channels on 1 February 2006.

As of 1 December 2006, Dish Network lost a court case and cut distant local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX from NYC or LA). This has no impact on the vast majority of Dish Network subscribers. However, distant local subscribers that were impacted have been provided a simple work around to correct this issue. Those affected may still receive distant local channels by using a 3rd party provider and their same Dish Network equipment by contacting All American Direct (http://www.mydistantnetworks.com/). Customers choosing this option would continue to get both Dish Network channels and All American Direct Channels through the same receiver and these channels would be seamlessly integrated into the channel list.

On January 1, 2007, Turner Broadcasting System ceased delivery of Court TV to Dish Network customers, after EchoStar and Turner Broadcasting System were unable to agree on terms for a new carriage agreement. Echostar has insisted that Turner was demanding more than 70% rate increase. “We are working hard to negotiate a fair contract with Turner Networks and CourtTV,” said Eric Sahl, senior vice president of Programming for EchoStar’s DISH Network. “But we must also protect our customers from unreasonable demands. It is not fair to ask our customers to pay a DBS premium for a channel owned by the second largest cable operator, Time Warner. We take pride in offering consumers the best value for pay TV service in the industry, and we remain committed to keeping our cost structure low to the benefit of our customers.” ^[2]

Technical information

Satellites & locations

In 1987, EchoStar applied for a DBS license with the Federal Communications Commission and was granted access to geostationary orbital slot 119° West longitude in 1992.^[3]

In 1996, EchoStar and Dominion Video Satellite, Inc., proprietor of the Sky Angel DBS service, formed a technical agreement where Dominion has co-located its FCC-licensed DBS frequencies and channels on the same DBS satellite, EchoStar III (61.5° West longitude), carrying DBS frequencies and channels licensed by the FCC to EchoStar. The two DBS companies operate independently of one another, and subscribers to each service are not required to subscribe to both services, however, this technical agreement enables individuals, at their option, to subscribe to both services using the same satellite receiving system.

In 1999, EchoStar obtained the broadcasting assets of a failed joint venture between ASkyB and MCI Worldcom, including 28 transponders at the 110°W orbital location.

On 1 May 2005, EchoStar added the first 10 of the 21 original Voom channels. These channels are available at a 61.5°W orbital slot position. EchoStar plans to carry all 21 original Voom channels by 2006.^[4]

On 15 February 2006, Echostar X, the tenth satellite in Echostar's fleet, was successfully launched. By mid-May it successfully began broadcasting from the 110°W orbital location to satisfy an FCC mandate for single-dish local-into-local service.

Satellite dishes

DISH Network offers different types of satellite receiving equipment for obtaining signals from its diverse satellite fleet.

There remain communities in the U.S. where cable companies collude with condominium associations and landlords to keep keep DirecTV and Dish Network "out" by preventing potential customers from choosing any television services other than the ones provided by the local CATV cable company, which typically are characterized by comparatively fewer programming choices and by comparatively inferior audio and video quality. Often, this is accomplished through unlawful lease provisions and unlawful restrictive covenants against the appropriate placement of the required parabolic antennae. This has been so great a problem for DBS companies and for the United States that federal law now provides, in 47 CFR 1.4000[1], against this blatant and unlawful restraint on trade.

DISH 300

DISH Network's first satellite antenna was simply called the "DISH Network" dish. It was retroactively named the "DISH 300" when legal and satellite problems forced delays of the forthcoming DISH 500 systems. It uses one LNB to obtain signals from the 119°W orbital location, and is commonly used as a second dish to receive additional high-definition or ethnic programming from either the 148°W or 61.5°W orbital locations. The 119°W slot is one of two primary orbital locations that provide core services.

DISH 500

After EchoStar obtained the broadcasting assets of a failed joint venture between ASkyB and MCI Worldcom, it had more than doubled its capacity by adding 28 transponders at the 110°W orbital location. Since EchoStar also owned the adjacent 119°W orbital location it developed the DISH 500 to receive the signals of both orbital locations using one dish and an innovative dual-LNB assembly. Although the new 20-inch DISH 500 was slightly larger than the then-current 18-inch DISH 300 and DirecTV dishes it had the distinct advantage of obtaining signals from EchoStar's two adjacent satellite locations for a theoretical 500-channel capacity. The DISH 500, as a result, provided very large capacity for local-into-local service, nationwide programming, and business services. In order to migrate existing customers to DISH 500, DISH Network provides value-added channels in addition to local channels that can only be received with the DISH 500 and newer systems. Some of these channels exclusive to these newer systems are History Channel International, Boomerang, The Science Channel, and Discovery Home. With the launch of EchoStar X in 2006 at 110°W thousands of local channels will only be available with a DISH 500 system.

DISH 1000

In spite of all this capacity EchoStar still needed to fulfill the dream of nationwide high-definition television and conceived the DISH 1000 system to receive signals from 110°W, 119°W and 129°W orbital locations. Originally, DISH Network high-definition subscribers required two separate satellite dishes. Today, approximately 70% of DISH Network subscribers can receive nationwide HDTV channels using the 129°W orbital location, but since the 129°W does not effectively cover the entire United States this solution is not available for large populations of customers in the Northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and deep Southern regions of the United States. Unfortunately, some DISH 1000 subscribers still need a second satellite dish to receive high-definition local channels. Furthermore, technical problems with the partially failed satellites used at 129°W have left the reception of high-definition content with the DISH 1000 an unfulfilled promise for many DISH Network customers.

SuperDISH, DISH 500+, and DISH 1000+

During DISH Network's quest for capacity, they had accumulated a dizzying array of satellite broadcasting technologies, orbital locations, and surplus capacity using non-mainstream technologies requiring larger dish sizes. To capitalize on these broadcasting assets DISH Network started providing extensive ethnic programming that receive programming from lower-powered satellites broadcasting in the non-DBS portion of the FSS band. DISH Network offers specialized equipment for these customers including larger dish antennas. The SuperDISH, DISH 500+, and DISH 1000+ systems receive DBS signals from both of the primary 110°W and 119°W locations (129°W for DISH 1000+) as well as lower-powered FSS signals from either 121°W(Required for KBS World), 105°W, or 118.75°W. To underscore how exotic these systems can be the DISH 500+ and 1000+ systems receive circularly-polarized signals in the non-DBS portion of the FSS band — the only American satellite television service to do so.

Broadcast technology

While for years DISH Network has used standard MPEG-2 for broadcasting, the addition of bandwidth-intensive HDTV in a limited-bandwidth world has called for a change to an MPEG-4 system. DISH Network announced as of 1 February 2006, that all new HDTV channels would be available in MPEG-4 format only, while maintaining the current lineup as MPEG-2. Both a standard receiver and a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) are available to subscribers for an upgrade fee. DISH Network intends to eventually convert the entire platform to MPEG-4 in order to provide more channels to subscribers.

Number of subscribers by year

Management

• Charles W. Ergen: Founder, Chairman, and CEO
• Steven Schaver: President of EchoStar International
• Mark Jackson: President of EchoStar Technologies Corporation
• James DeFranco: Executive Vice President
• David Moskowitz: Executive Vice President and General Counsel
• Michael Kelly: Executive Vice President, Dish Network Service, L.L.C. & Dish Network Customer Service
• Nolan Daines: Executive Vice President of Information Technology and Broadband
• David J. Rayner: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer