Shortly before the AT&T/T-Mobile merger came to its ignominious end, Dish Network CEO Joseph Clayton casually expressed his interest in a partnership with T-Mobile as a means of bringing wireless voice service to Dish customers.
Those plans may not pan out if AT&T has anything to do with it. A new report from Bloomberg indicates that AT&T is apparently so hard up for additional spectrum that they’re considering shelling out “the highest premium in more than a decade” to acquire the satellite TV provider and their spectrum holdings. → Read More
It looks like AT&T and T-Mobile aren’t the only ones preparing for all contingencies: Dish Network CEO Joseph Clayton said in an interview with Bloomberg that if the pending merger were to fail, he would consider striking up a partnership with T-Mobile.
Strange move, no? Not necessarily — Dish Network picked up some wireless spectrum on the cheap when they acquired DBSD and Terrestar, both of whom had filed for bankruptcy. Instead of flipping their spectrum for some easy revenue, Clayton says that the company has bigger plans for it.
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Dish Network has the answer to Netflix: Blockbuster. The company bought the bankrupt Blockbuster six months ago at auction for $228 million and apparently wasted no time integrating Blockbuster’s current streaming service into Dish’s satellite TV plans. The Blockbuster Movie Pass is a complete media rental service and features streaming movies and TV shows along with movies and games-by-mail. But don’t cancel your Netflix streaming account just yet. → Read More
Satellite TV and video-on-demand company DISH Network this morning announced today that Joseph P. Clayton has been named the company’s president and chief executive officer and has been appointed to its board of directors, effective June 20, 2011. The company’s iconic co-founder, Charles Ergen, will step down from his operational role at the helm of the company but remain as chairman of DISH Network.
Clayton previously served as chairman of Sirius Satellite Radio, from November 2004 through July 2008, and served as CEO of Sirius from November 2001 through November 2004. → Read More
DISH Network and EchoStar this morning announced that they’ve agreed to pay TiVo $500 million to settle all of their ongoing patent litigation with the digital video recorder company.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, DISH and EchoStar will initially cough up $300 million, with the remaining $200 million distributed in six equal annual payments between 2012 and 2017. → Read More
DISH Network this morning announced that it was selected as the winning bidder in the bankruptcy court auction for substantially all of the assets of Blockbuster, which went belly up in September 2010.
DISH’s winning bid was valued at approximately $320 million, but after adjustments for available cash and inventory and others, the company expects to end up paying approximately $228 million in cash to acquire Blockbuster. → Read More
Batten down the hatches, netizens! At a streaming media conference yesterday, Dish Network Vice-President of Online Content Development and Strategy, Bruce Eisen, said that sites like Hulu, which allow Internet users to watch certain television programming (and sometimes for free), may well destroy the television industry as we know it. That’s a bad thing if you’re Dish Network, but what if you’re the average person? → Read More
As I said, it’s Logitech‘s day today, and now it’s time for other companies to piggyback on all the goodwill. Dish Network has two main bits of info for us this afternoon: one, that it’ll be selling the Logitech Revue, and two, that if you’re a subscriber you’re potentially looking at a nice little discount. Nothing wrong with that. → Read More
If you’ve never heard of the DTVPal DVR – or DTVPal tuner, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The DTVPal DVR was an interesting device that was a cross between a VCR and a DVR. VCR because it could record shows based on time – unlike the better TiVo model, where it records by show – and DVR because it was, well, digital. → Read More
TiVo is having a very rough morning.
A federal appeals court stated today that it will revisit a digital-video recorder patent dispute between TiVo and both Dish Network and EchoStar. TiVo has sued the companies back in 2004 over its patented DVR technology back when the two were still a single company.
They won the suit, but the court has now decided to reconsider its verdict, which is a bit of a cold shower for the company.
Today’s decision pushed TiVo shares down as much as 36 percent. → Read More
Epix, the movie and entertainment streaming network that works across your TV, computer, and mobile phone, has landed another cable deal: Dish Network. In the past few months, the network also landed a deal with Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Mediacom Communications. We wrote about the service here and here. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Jointly backed by Viacom, Lionsgate, Paramount, and MGM, EPIX provides access to over 15,000 movie titles. The company originally signed a deal with Verizon FIOS, which was somewhat limiting considering only some 2 million people use Verizon’s cable service. Epix is getting a much greater userbase with the deal with Dish Network, which has more than 14.1 million customers around the nation. This is also the first national distribution deal for EPIX. → Read More
Dish Network lost a bunch of subscribers at the end of last year but the company is still in the black even with losing 104,000 subs. Dish’s contract with AT&T is now up and it seems that all those peeps that got roped into deals are now dropping the service after the contract expired. Now, don’t think the company is washed up ’cause at the end of last year, Dish still had 13,678,000 subscribers and reported a 1% revenue increase from the previous year. → Read More
This isn’t exactly new, in the strictest definition of the word, but why let that stop us? A group of Sirius XM creditors, creditors whose money makes the company hum on a daily basis, have threatened to seek the ouster of chief executive officer Mel Karmazin if the company files for bankruptcy. (Remember: that could happen as early as tomorrow.) The WSJ notes, however, that the odds of this actually happening—adios, Mel!—are fairly low, since bankruptcy judges tend to give management the benefit of the doubt that it’s doing its best for the corporation. If, for some reason, the judge decides in favor of the creditors, Karmazin and a whole host of Sirius XM brass could be out of a job (which, coincidentally, may not be all that bad). → Read More
This Sirius XM bankruptcy story is starting to read like some trashy novel. There’s now word that DirecTV is getting involved, with the CEO of its parent company Liberty Media, one John C. Malone, offering to bail out the troubled satellite radio company. Some see it as a genuine offer, while others see it merely as a ploy to jack up the price for Malone’s rival at EchoStar (Dish Network), Charles W. Ergen. Wonderful. → Read More
Man alive! Dish Network will have a DVR with built-in Slingbox tech. It’s the Vip 922 HD DuoDVR; we don’t know when it’ll be available, nor do we have any pics. Later today, I suppose. → Read More
Call: Barack Obama has so much money… Response: How much money? Call: He has so much money that he can buy a channel on Dish Network, where he’ll pump his campaign messages 24/7. If you’re keen to check out Obama’s channel, tune in to channel 73. It runs through November. And no, it’s not Dish Network endorsing Obama or anything. It’s merely a paid advertisement. If McCain would pony up the cash, I’m sure Dish would be more than happy to accept it and run his ads on loop. Off topic, but: is anyone else a little tired of Palin’s “folksy” attitude. We get it: you’re the average American. Good for you. → Read More
