Dish Network - Yank My Dish!

Dish Network

Satellite DBS Information and History of Dish Network.

Dish Network is a DBS service that is owned by Echostar communications and is a digital satellite company. Dish Network started up back in March of 1996. Their main competitor for digital satellite is DirecTV or also known as Direct TV. Dish Network's main headquarters and dish network management are located in Engelwood Colorado.

Dish Network got started from Echostar, which was created in 1980 by Charlie Ergen. Charlie Ergen was the CEO of Echostar and is now currently the CEO of Dish Network. Echostar used to be a distributor of the C-Band satellite systems which was known for their giant 10 foot wide dishes. In 1987, Echostar requested license from the FCC for their DBS and was given a geostationary orbital spot of 119 degrees west longitude in 1992.

In 1995, Echostar launched it's first satellite into space called Echostar 1. Later that year, they marketed their product as Dish Network and that was the birth of Dish Network. Echostar made an agreement with Dominion Video Satelite in 1996 to co-locate their DBS channels onto the same satellite. These two services were independent of one another and a subscriber customer of echostar didn't have to subscribe to Dominion Video Satelite or both of the satellite television services. customers subscribed to any of the satellite TV services still operated on the same dish which got a signal from the same satellite.

The Dish Network in 1996 only started with an 18 inch dish, which was alot better and cleaner than the original 10 foot wide C-Band dish from Echostar. This small design of satellite dish was alot more practical for the customers and just that smaller design in the dish was a revolution in the satellite industry. This model of dish called the Dish 300 was only able to look at one satellite back then. DishNetwork has a new model called the Dish 500, a 20 inch dish with dual LNB (Low Noise Blockdown Converter). The dish 500 is able to look at two satellites at the same time. Finally, there is the superdish and dish 1000, which is a 36 inch by 20 inch satellite dish which looks at three satellites. The super dish has two types. One kind looks at 119 W, 110 W, and 105 W longitude satellites. The other type looks at 119 W, 110 W, and 121 W longitude. The dish 1000 on the other hand looks at satellites at 119 W, 110 W, and 129 W longitude.

In 2003, Dish Network expanded to a new line of service by creating in-flight satellite TV for Song airlines. In 2004, Dish Network added Sirius Satellite Radio Channels to their audio channels programming. A new service was created for broadband satellite internet called Starband. Dish network partnered up with starband to do this, but in 2003 their partnership ended and so did dish network's broadband satellite internet services. Presently, dish network has agreed with local telephone operators to market DSL and other dish network services.

Some of the more recent news from dish network was when echostar added 10 of 21 of the original Voom Channels to their programming in 2005. The rest of the Voom channels are expected to be added sometimg in 2006. Also in 2005, Dish network lost OLN from their programming when Comcast cable refused to provide National Hockey Leauge coverage to dish network. Dish Network later made a deal and OLN was added back to dish networks programming in 2006.

In 2006, dish network cut two more channels from it's programming. They cut Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network. Lifetime channel wanted a 70% increase in the price of it's programming and Lifetime claims it was only pennies. Later than year both dish network and lifetime channel came to an agreement. Dish network reached 12 million customers in 2006. During 5 years, dish network claimed more customers than any other satellite or cable provider in that same time span. Later that year, dish was scheduled to launch it's newest satellite into orbit called Echostar X. This launch was canceled due to an error on the launch pad, but launched on a later day that year successfully. In March 2006, dish network aired the Charlie Chat to celebrate it's 10th anniversary of dish network since it's beginning in 1996.

Each month, Dish network has it's own show called "Charlie Chat", which is hosted by CEO Charlie Ergen and Executive Vice President Jim DeFranco. The Charlie Chat features Charlie Ergen and Jim DeFranco discussing news with dish network like new channels and new hardware. Charlie and Jim also take questions from emails and phone calls and answer them on the show.

Dish Network originally used DVB-S to broadcast their channels. Dish Network has called for a change in their MPEG 4 system because of their high bandwitdh HDTV. They will have MPEG 4 format only but will still maintain their MPEG 2 system. Dish network standard receivers and DVR - Digital Video Recorder - are made available for an upgrade fee when they are leased. Dish Network is planning on converting it's entire programming to MPEG 4 to provide more channels for customers. The MPEG4 uses a dish 1000 in order to pull in a satellite signal from 110/119 and 129 west longitude. 129 west longitude will provide the new MPEG 4 HDTV channels as well as a mirror for the satellite 61.5 west longitude. Dish network will then be able to offer HD locals into locals (High definition local channels over satellite.)

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