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DISH Network is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service that provides satellite television and audio programming to households and businesses in the United States, owned by parent company EchoStar Communications Corporation. DISH Network was launched in March, 1996, and, along with DirecTV, primarily competes with cable television providers throughout the United States. It is based in Englewood, Colorado.
History EchoStar was formed in 1980 by its Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen as a distributor of C band TV systems. 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. 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. 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. 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. DISH Network originally used an 18-inch satellite dish called DISH 300 that allowed subscribers to receive a signal from one satellite location. Today, DISH Network commonly uses 20-inch satellite dishes called DISH 500, which allows subscribers to receive satellite signals from two satellite locations (119°W and 110°W) simultaneously. Slightly larger dishes such as the 36 inches × 20 inches SuperDISH, DISH 1000, and DISH 500+ are capable of receiving satellite signals from three satellite locations simultaneously, and the advanced DISH 1000+ system receives signals from four locations. DISH 500+ and 1000+ are becoming more common as DISH Network (as well as other DBS services) are attempting to squeeze more programming onto their growing systems, particularly local and national American television network stations, as well as HDTV and ethnic programming. 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. Every month, DISH Network has a show called 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 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. In October 2005, DISH Network unilaterally cut service of one of its channels to its subscribers. The situation involved OLN and its owner Comcast. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based cable provider refused to provide OLN's 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 (which became Versus on September 25, 2006) 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. 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. On 15 February 2006, Echostar X, the tenth satellite in Echostar's fleet, was successfully launched. By mid-May it was successfully started broadcasting from the 110°W orbital location to satisfy an FCC mandate for single-dish local-into-local service. 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. 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 has 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. Satellite dishes DISH Network offers different types of satellite receiving equipment for obtaining from its diverse satellite fleet. DISH 300
DISH 500
DISH 1000
SuperDISH, DISH 500+, and DISH 1000+
Number of subscribers by year
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