About Dish Network
Dish Network is a company that, in
direct competition with Directv®, competes for the direct broadcast
satellite (DBS) customer base in the United States. Dish Network is
a service organization that provides satellite television and audio
programming that is sent to homes and businesses all across the United
States. In order to get the Dish Network services, you can sign-up
online or use the toll free phone number that is given on our satellite
tv ordering information page.
Dish Network is owned by it's parent
company, EchoStar Communications Corporation. Dish Network is based
in Meridian, Colorado. According to recent consumer satisfaction surveys,
Dish Network is the number one rated satellite TV program provider
in the United States.
Dish Network History
Dish Network, along with Directv®,
was launched early in 1996. Both of these companies compete with cable
television providers throughout the United States for their base of
customers. EchoStar One, the first Dish Network satellite, was launched
on the 28th of December in 1995.
The launch of the Echostar One satellite
was a historical gamble that paid off. This is due to the fact that
it was one of the first successful commercial satellite launches that
were done from China. This being after a series of spectacular launch
failures from that country. This all happened in the same year that
the EchoStar Communications Corporation established the Dish Network
brand name in order to market their home satellite TV systems to the
nation.
Quick Historical Dish Network Data
t
The word "DISH" in Dish Network as an acronym for Digital Sky Highway.
t
In 2003, Song (a U.S. airline company)
started using the Dish Network satellite TV service for their in-flight
television programming which they offered to their passengers in order
to help pass the time during flights.
t In
2004, music channels from the Sirius Satellite Radio network were
added to the Dish Network lineup of audio channels. They had already
offered Muzak audio services but Sirius Satellite Radio was a welcome
addition.
t In
2006, Dish Network partnered with WildBlue to deliver broadband via
satellite. Also in 2006, it was announced that Dish Network had gone
past the 12 million mark for paid subscribers. Dish Network added
more new customers in the previous five years than all other satellite
TV and cable companies.
History of Dish Network Systems
The first Dish Network satellite dish
was simply called the "Dish Network" dish. Later, in a move to make
it seem more in-line with the modern names for their satellite dishes,
it was renamed the "DISH 300".
Then Dish Network obtained the broadcasting
assets of ASkyB and MCI Worldcom, which had been involved in a joint
venture that had failed. This more than doubled Dish Network's capacity
with the addition of 28 new transponders that were located at the
110°W orbital location in the sky. Since the EchoStar Communications
Corporation also happened to own the adjacent 119°W orbital location,
they developed a new dish and named it the "DISH 500".
This new satellite TV dish was capable
of receiving the signals of both orbital locations by using just one
dish and an technologically innovative new dual-LNB assembly. This
new dish had the advantage of being able to obtain signals from EchoStar's
two adjacent satellite locations. This set up the theoretical 500-channel
capacity that Dish Network can advertise today. It also gave them
a very large capacity for nationwide programming as well as business
services. In an effort to incorporate and switch their existing subscribers
to the new DISH 500 systems, Dish Network decided to provide value-added
channels as well as local channels that could only be received by
using the DISH 500 and any newer systems that they decided to launch.
Dish Network then conceived the DISH
1000 system in order to fulfill the need of a high-definition television
programming service that could be received nationwide. In the beginning,
subscribers of the Dish Network high-definition services needed two
separate satellite dishes. Today, most Dish Network subscribers have
the ability to receive HDTV channels nationwide by using the 129°W
orbital location. However, since the 129°W slot does not truly have
a coverage area over the entire United States, this solution is not
viable for subscribers who happen to live in the deep southern regions,
northeastern areas or mid-Atlantic locations in the United States.
