Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » DISH Network Corp.

Dish Network May Partner With T-Mobile If AT&T Acquisition Falls Through

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:06:05 +0000

DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) will likely partner with T-Mobile USA if AT&T’s acquisition deal falls through. DISH acquired additional wireless spectrum earlier this year as part of a deal for buying the bankrupted DBSD North America Inc. and Terrestar Networks Inc. DISH could merge their spectrum assets with T-Mobile or another wireless company to intensify the rivalry against AT&T and Verizon.

DISH could also team up with Sprint or Clearwire. Of course any of these telecommunications deals would require approval from the FCC.

“We’re not interested in making money on selling our spectrum,” stated DISH CEO Joseph Clayton. “We want to use it to create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We’ve got expertise in satellite-TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we’ll need some help with.”

DISH is still waiting on the FCC to approve use of the spectrum. The Justice Department is also suing AT&T to block the proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. That case has been put on hold so far.

[Bloomberg]

AT&T Approached MetroPCS, Leap, Sprint, and Dish Network To Sell Spectrum In Order To Protect T-Mobile Deal

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:37:17 +0000

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has talked to several smaller rivals including MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE:PCS) and Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAP) to sell spectrum and subscribers. This is in order to save AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

AT&T also reached out to CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL), Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), and DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) to see if they were interested in buying assets.

AT&T is also preparing to battle the Justice Department in court. The Justice Department sued AT&T on August 31st in an attempt to stop the deal. If the deal does not work out, AT&T agreed to compensate T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom for $3 billion in cash.

[Bloomberg]

Fox’s Eight-Day Delays Lead to Huge Spike in Torrenting

Riley Kennysmith — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:21:27 +0000

Fox has been sticking to its eight-day delay guns for a week now, and the company’s future already looks grim. As anyone with half a brain predicted, when faced with an eight-day delay to popular programming, consumers respond by getting their tv illegally. TorrentFreak reports a 114% increase in downloads for Hell’s Kitchen and a 189% increase in downloads for MasterChef, which had its season finale this week. The episodes used to be available next-day on Hulu, but Fox is now only giving Hulu Plus and Dish Network the next-day privileges.

Fox clearly hoped that the content delay would encourage viewers to either watch the programs live or shell out for Hulu Plus, and foolishly ignored the reality of online piracy of their shows. Some consumers went straight to torrents, while others flocked to youtube uploads of the shows. What Fox fails to realize is that some shows beg to be watched immediately, and very few people are willing to spend extra money on something that can be had for free. [GigaOM]

Dish Network To Close Down 200 More Blockbuster Stores

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:46:43 +0000

DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) has revealed that they are planning to shut down 200 more Blockbuster retail stores. Now there are a total of 1,500 total Blockbuster stores open. This past April, DISH Network won an auction to acquire Blockbuster’s assets for $228 million in cash. The employees working at those 200 stores would be able to transfer to other stores. [BGR]

DISH and EchoStar End Lawsuit With TiVo By Paying $500 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:42:23 +0000

DISH Network and EchoStar have settled a lawsuit with TiVo by paying them $500 million. DISH and EchoStar will be paying TiVo an initial $300 million. The other $200 million will be made in 6 equal payments between 2012 and 2017.

The companies will be ending all pending lawsuits. TiVo will dissolve all injunctions against both EchoStar and DISH. TiVo also granted DISH a license to their Time Warp patent along with several other related patents permanently. Time Warp is a patent that allows people to record one TV show at the same time as watching another.

TiVo will also help DISH Network promote Blockbuster digital video. TiVo sued DISH and EchoStar back in 2004. They had won the lawsuit, but the court decided to reconsider the verdict in May 2010.

[TechCrunch]

Dish Network Buying Blockbuster For $320 Million In Bankruptcy Auction

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:14:37 +0000

DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) has acquired Blockbuster Inc. in a $320 million bankruptcy auction. Dish Network outbid at least 3 other bidders including billionaire investors Carl Icahn. The deal includes over 1,700 Blockbuster stores and the rights to stream BLockbuster’s movies over the Internet.

This is Dish is expecting to pay $228 million in cash, $100 million of receivables and cash, and a rental library estimated to be worth around $175 million. Blockbuster will use the money to pay creditors, which includes Carl Icahn and other bondholders.

Around the time that Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in September, they had about 1.3 million subscribers for its monthly or annual services. Netflix has about 20 million subscribers for their mail-order delivery. Dish is expecting to continually close Blockbuster’s stores.

[Reuters]

Dish Network To Acquire DBSD For $1 Billion

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:47:39 +0000

DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) is going to acquire DBSD North America for $1 billion. Dish Network is also providing DBSD with an $87.5 million loan. This deal is assuming that the FCC and the government gives regulatory approval of the deal.

Dish Network has an interest in DBSD’s access to the broadband spectrum. With an increase in spectrum, Dish Network could build vast wireless networks for supporting data and voice communications.

“Dish also has some spectrum, and if you put DBSD and Dish together you could create a 4G or LTE network — it’s a situation where one plus one equals three,” stated Kaufman Brothers analyst Todd Mitchell. DBSD filed for bankruptcy in May 2009.

TiVo Wins $200 Million In Court Over Patent Battle Against EchoStar, Appeal Expected

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:43:47 +0000

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled in favor of TiVo against EchoStar. TiVo filed a $200 million patent lawsuit against EchoStar for using unauthorized digital video recorder (DVR) technology for their own services. It is expected that EchoStar will take this lawsuit all the way up to the Supreme Court. For the time being this ruling should not affect TiVo or DISH Network customers. Below is the full press release. [Engadget]

TiVo Statement on Decision by U.S. Court of Appeals in Lawsuit Against EchoStar

ALVISO, CA – March 4, 2010 – TiVo Inc., the creator of and a leader in television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs), offered the following statement today on the U.S. Court of Appeals decision in its lawsuit against EchoStar.

“We are pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit fully affirmed the district court’s finding of contempt against EchoStar, including both the disablement and infringement provisions. Additionally, this ruling paves the way for TiVo to receive the approximately $300M in damages and contempt sanctions awarded to us for EchoStar’s continued infringement through July 1, 2009. We will also seek further damages and contempt sanctions for the period of continued infringement thereafter. We will continue our efforts to protect our intellectual property from further infringement.”

DISH NETWORK AND ECHOSTAR STATEMENT REGARDING TIVO

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – March 4, 2010 – DISH Network L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), and EchoStar Technologies L.L.C., a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), issued the following statement regarding recent developments in TiVo vs. EchoStar Communications Corporation:

“We are disappointed in the Federal Circuit’s split decision, but are pleased that Judge Rader agreed with our position. Therefore, we will be seeking en banc review by the full Federal Circuit. We also will be proposing a new design-around to the district court for approval. At this time, our DVR customers are not impacted.”

TiVo Suing AT&T and Verizon For Infringing DVR Patent

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:15:43 +0000

TiVo Inc. launched one of the first digital video recorder (DVR) devices in 1999. However TiVo has been facing competition from AT&T and Verizon, who provide DVR as a service through TV cable. This is why TiVo has filed a lawsuit against both telecommunication companies at the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.

TiVo is seeking damages and a permanent injunction from using the feature. This complaint the same as the one made in a lawsuit against DISH/Echostar. That complaint was made in 2004. Initially TiVo was ruled to be awarded $105 million, but DISH/Echostar filed an appeal. While the appeal was being made, DISH/Echostar designed new software that would replace the old video recording software.

TiVo claimed that DISH/Echostar was still infringing on their patent, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office dismissed a request from TiVo to have DISH/Echostar no longer have the ability to re-examine its patent. DISH will be using the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office dismissal as part of their appeal in court.

DISH has about 14 million subscribers while AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FIOS cable services have a combined subscriber base of 4 million.

TiVo Wins $193 Million In Patent Lawsuit Against EchoStar

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:36:08 +0000

TiVo Inc. has been awarded $190 million in damages for a patent lawsuit against DISH Network Corporation and EchoStar Corporation. U.S. District Judge David Folsom also told EchoStar that they are not allowed to infringe on all except around 193,000 digital video recorders for all of their subscribers.

EchoStar was told to pay $73.9 million along with $15.7 million in interest. On top of those amounts, EchoStar must also pay $103.1 million in damages plust interest accrued.

DISH and EchoStar plan to file an appeal with the court decision. DISH used to be known as EchoStar Communications Corporation before they spun off their technology assets about a year ago including the set-top box units. EchoStar Corp. was the result of the spin-off.

[via Reuters]