Dish Network

Dish Network is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service that broadcasts digital satellite television and audio to households 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

Dish Network's Dish 1000 mounted on a roof.

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.[1]

On December 28, 1995, EchoStar successfully launched its first satellite, EchoStar I. That same year, EchoStar established the Dish Network brand name to market its home satellite TV system.

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.

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 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"×20" SuperDish and the Dish 1000 are being introduced with capability to receive satellite signals from three satellite locations simultaneously. There are two different versions of the SuperDish. One receives feeds from satellites at 119°W, 110°W, and 121°W while the other receives 119°W, 110°W, and 105°W. The Dish 1000 receives from satellites at 119°W, 110°W, and 129°W. Both Dish 1000 and SuperDish 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 foreign programming.

In 2003, Dish Network began providing in-flight satellite TV service to the U.S. airline Song. In 2004, selected music channels from the Sirius Satellite Radio were added to Dish Network's lineup of audio-only channels.

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 agreement with number of local telephone providers to cross market DSL and Dish Network services.

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 May 1, 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 next year. (more information here)

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, because it was not available on a sufficiently high-penetration tier. Dish 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 will become Versus in September of 2006) reached a long term agreement to carry the channel once more.

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

On January 4, 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 February 8, 2006, the scheduled launch of Echostar X, the tenth satellite in Echostar's fleet, was scrubbed due to an unspecified issue at the Sea Launch site. The launch was pushed back to February 15, when it was successfully launched into its orbital position.

On March 13 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 enjoyed programming on the Dish Network.

While for years, Dish Network has used standard DVB-S for broadcasting their channels, the addition of bandwidth-intensive HDTV in a limited-bandwidth world has called for a change to an MPEG-4 system. Dish has announced as of 1 February 2006, that all new HD (High Definition) channels would be available in MPEG-4 format only, while maintaining the current MPEG-2 lineup. Both a standard receiver and a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) are available to subscribers for an upgrade fee when leased. Dish Network plans to convert the entire lineup, high-def and standard-def channels, to MPEG4 in order to provide more channels to subscribers. The new MPEG4 system uses the Dish 1000 system pulling from 110/119 and 129 orbital slots. The 129 orbital slot serves the new MPEG-4 HDTV channels and is also a mirror of 61.5. With this, they are finally able to offer HD Locals-into-locals (high-def locals over satellite)

Satellite Dishes

Dish Network offers different types of satellites for obtaining signals from its satellite fleet.

Dish Network's Dish 300 in its original box.

Dish 300Dish Network's first satellite antenna was called Dish 300. It uses only one LNB to obtain signals from Echostar VI, 119°W. Echostar VI is one of Dish Network's primary satellites in offering its core services featuring channels like the Disney Channel, MTV, Discovery Channel and many other customer favorites.

Two Dish Network 500 satellite antenna's mounted on a rooftop.

Dish 500

After Dish Network released the Dish 300, it then later released the more worthy Dish 500.Although the satellite dish was bigger (around 20') than the previous 18' one, it could obtain signals from two satellite locations. It could still recive signals from Echostar VI at 119°W Longitude like the Dish 300, but the Dish 500 could now recieve signals from Echostar VIII 110°W Longitude. The Dish 500 can give a user up to 500 channel choices including locals. The satellite dish is one of DISH Network's primary satellites offering its core services and local programming. Some Channels that are exclusive to a Dish 500 are, History Channel International, Boomerang (TV channel), the Science Channel, and Discovery Home.

Number of subscribers by year

Year	Subscribers
1995	20,000
1996	100,000
1997	250,000
1998	500,000
1999	1,000,000
2000	2,000,000
2001	4,000,000
2002	5,000,000
2003	9,000,000
2004	10,000,000
2005	11,000,000
2006	12,000,000

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

List of channels on Dish Network

Local channels

Dish Network also offers local channels (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, PBS, WB, UPN, and some independent stations) for many markets. To view independent stations, a second dish (installed at no additional cost to the customer) may be required. If a market lacks an affiliate for a network, Dish Network offers feeds from other cities (known as distant locals). Feeds from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver are available for CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox; the company once also offered these distants from Atlanta, but this ended in March 2006. Dish Network also offers UPN affiliates WWOR-TV (New York City) and WSBK-TV (Boston), and WB affiliates WPIX (New York City), KWGN-TV (Denver), and KTLA-TV (Los Angeles). WPIX, KWGN and KTLA will become affiliates of the new CW Network, while WWOR will join forces with My Network TV, and WSBK will revert to an independent format, all during September of 2006. A national PBS channel is also available. The WB feeds from Miami and San Diego are also provided to customers in certain markets who subscribe to local channels. A recent court ruling forced Dish to drop all distant networks.

While the distant locals of the major networks are limited to viewers who cannot receive local affiliates by antenna, the UPN and WB affiliates and PBS member are available to most subscribers, whether or not they have local equivalents. (in fact, DISH once offered a package discount for viewers who choose to receive their local affiliates and the superstations which is still available to some "grandfathered" subscribers).

Satellite fleet

Satellite	Current Orbital Slot	Launch Date	Satellite Manufacturer/Type
EchoStar I	148° W	28 December 1995	Lockheed Martin Astro Space Series 7000
EchoStar II	148° W	10 September 1996	Lockheed Martin Astro Space Series 7000
EchoStar III	61.5° W	5 October 1997	Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space A2100AX
EchoStar IV *	77° W	8 May 1998	Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space A2100AX
EchoStar V	129° W	23 September 1999	Space Systems/Loral FS-1300
EchoStar VI	110° W	14 July 2000	Space Systems/Loral FS-1300
EchoStar VII	119° W	21 February 2002	Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space A2100AX
EchoStar VIII	110° W	21 August 2002	Space Systems/Loral FS-1300
Echostar 12 *	61.5° W	17 July 2003	Lockheed-Martin AS-2100
EchoStar IX/Telstar 13	121° W	7 August 2003	Space Systems/Loral FS-1300
AMC-15 *	105° W	14 October 2004	Lockheed-Martin AS-2100
AMC-16 *	118.75° W (temp. relocated from 85° W)	17 December 2004	Lockheed-Martin A2100AX
EchoStar X	110° W	15 February 2006	Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space A2100AX

EchoStar IV at 77° W is not licensed to serve customers in the United States. Echostar has placed the satellite in this Mexican controlled orbital slot to serve future DBS customers in Mexico.

Rainbow 1 was launched by Cablevision/Rainbow DBS and used for the Voom DBS service until the satellite and transponder licenses were sold to Echostar in 2005. March 2006 saw Dish Network rename it to Echostar 12.

AMC-15 is owned by SES Americom and replaced AMC-2 at the 105° orbital location. Echostar leases the entire bandwidth of the AMC-15 satellite.

AMC-16 is also leased from SES Americom. It broadcasts on non-DBS FSS frequencies at medium power using circular polarity (the only satellite serving the United States in this mode). AMC-16 is temporarily placed at 118.75° W and will eventually move back to 85° W when Anik F1 is launched. Customers use a 26-centimeter DiSH 500+ or 1000+ system to receive AMC-16's lower power signal.

Dish Network: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents

Dish Network

History

Satellite Dishes

Number of subscribers by year

Management

List of channels on Dish Network

High Definition Channels

Standard Definition Channels

Local channels

Satellite fleet

See also

External links