The Dish Network News Blog

From the SKYREPORT visit: www.skyreport.com  

EchoStar detailed its second quarter performance in a filing the company made with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday, including a jump in subscribers that didn’t quite match last year’s 2Q efforts.

The company said its DISH Network service added about 170,000 net new subscribers during the three-month period, taking its total to 13.585 million. That compares to about 195,000 net additions for the same period last year.

EchoStar attributed the lower net subscriber gain to a number of factors, one of them being seasonality. Typically, subscribers churn at a higher rate during the second and third quarters each year than during the first and fourth quarters, the company said.

As for financials, EchoStar said second quarter net income grew to $224.2 million, compared to $168.8 million for the same period last year. Revenues jumped 12 percent to $2.8 million.

More details about EchoStar’s second quarter results should come out today during an investor conference call between executives and analysts.

Dish Network plans to launch digital standard-definition locals in Wilmington, North Carolina, this month. With Dish Networks launch of Wilmington, North Carolina, Dish will have a grand total of 175 digital standard-definition local network markets, which represents approximately 97 % of U.S. households. Digital standard-definition local programming packages are priced at $5.99 a month or $5.00 a month with a subscription to minimum qualifying programming such as AT100 or higher

Dish Network will offer ABC WWAY, NBC WECT, FOX WSFX and PBS WUNJ from the Wilmington, North Carolina, DMA . The Wilmington, North Carolina, locals will be broadcasted from the 110° orbital location

On July 11, 2007, we launched HD locals in Birmingham, Alabama!

The Birmingham, Alabama, DMA HD Locals will include, ABC WJSU, CBS WIAT, FOX WBRC and NBC WVTM. The Locals will be broadcasted from the 119° orbital location. This will give customers HD local channels in addition to the digital standard-definition channels that DISH Network offers in this market. 

Many customers ask how does a Dish Network receiver get 37 DishHD channels plus 500 other channels of Dish Network programming? I can understand the confusion when digital cable only delivers a max of 10 HDTV channels or the other satellite company uses a large 5 LNB antenna that was 32 pounds! Well leave it up the Dish Network engineers to come out with the DISH 1000 and DISH 1000.2 antennas. The Dish Network DISH 1000 and DISH 1000.2 antennas receives signals from the 110°, 119°, and 129° orbital locations. The DISH 1000.2 antenna reflector size is slightly larger than a DISH 1000, but about the same surface area as the 20” DISH 500.

Keep in mind that DISH Pro Plus (dual-tuner) receivers include:
• DISH 322
• DISH Player-DVR 522
• DISH Player-DVR 625
• DISH 721
• DISH Player-DVR 921
• DISH Player-DVR 942
• ViP222
• ViP612 DVR
• ViP622 DVR
• ViP722 DVRAs opposed to the “other guys” 32 pound beast, the DISH 1000.2 is pretty easy to install. The mounting and installation requirements are similar to DISH 1000. There are additional skew holes are provided on the mounting bracket for extreme skew angles (greater than 110 or less than 70). The DISH 1000.2 mast uses a heavier gauge steel and is slightly longer than DISH 1000. Only the DISH 1000.2 mast/foot assembly should be used with the DISH 1000.2 reflector.For those of you with big houses, there are cable length restrictions. The DISH Pro (DP) and DISH Pro Plus (DPP) receivers shouldn’t be installed more than 200 feet from the furthest LNBF and Legacy Dish Network receivers shouldn’t be no more than 100 feet away from the DISH 1000.2.