Satellite Broadband Providers Announce Next-Gen Offerings
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, January 9, 2012 · 
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The two largest U.S.-based satellite broadband providers made big announcements last week.
ViaSat, parent company to the WildBlue Internet service, announced that it has entered into a new five-year wholesale distribution agreement with the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) for next-generation satellite broadband service through its new ViaSat-1 satellite, which was launched last October.
According to the company, the 140 Gbps capacity ViaSat-1 satellite will provide more capacity than all other communication satellites over the United States combined. Read more
Echostar to Shut Down IPTV Service
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, August 15, 2011 · ·
EchoStar confirmed last week that it will shut down its ViP-TV linear MPEG-4 transport offering, giving its IPTV customers about 45 days to find a new vendor. The move will affect about 26 customers, almost all of them tier 3 service providers.
According to published reports, the company announced the decision to its customers via an email. The service will begin shutting down August 24 and will officially close on September 30. Read more
Echostar TV Everywhere
Posted by Steve Fravel on Monday, June 6, 2011 · ·
In a move engineered to provide on-demand content to small and independent video service distributors, Echostar announced that it will be demonstrating the “Aria” system at the National Cable Show this month in Chicago.
Mark Jackson, president of the company’s EchoStar Technologies business unit said, “Innovative products are being introduced every day, but the technology to use them is designed for the nation’s largest providers. Aria is engineered to perform on existing networks without a painful integration period.”
The Aria system provides on-demand content to a set-top-box via the cloud. The system allows for video viewing in the home and to wireless mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Read more
Report: AT&T May Acquire Dish Network, Echostar
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, February 14, 2011 · ·
Late last week Credit Suisse released a report speculating that the time may be right for AT&T to acquire Dish Network, the No. 2 satellite service video provider.
In the last few weeks, Charlie Ergen, chairman of both EchoStar and Dish Network, has made several strategic moves to accumulate wireless spectrum and satellite capacity. Dish Network extended an offer to purchase satellite services company DBSD North America. DBSD controls about 20 Megahertz of S-band wireless spectrum. EchoStar also is said to be in a leading position among the debtholders of TerreStar Networks, which also owns a 20-MHz bock of S-band spectrum. And just this morning it was reported the Echostar has agreed to acquire Hughes Communications.
If Ergen can seize control of TerreStar, the companies’ combined broadband spectrum would be very appealing to a wireless operator such as AT&T. The New York Times has more:
According to the Credit Suisse report, AT&T could pay more than $20 billion for Dish Network and EchoStar — representing a 70% premium for the pair. For AT&T, a Dish acquisition makes strategic sense for three reasons, the report said: the valuable spectrum, significant synergies and the potential earnings growth. Read more
EchoStar to Acquire Hughes Communications
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, February 14, 2011 · ·
EchoStar has agreed to acquire Hughes Communications for $1.32 billion, or approximately $2 billion including the assumption of debt.
Under the terms of the transaction, which have been approved by the boards of directors of both companies, Hughes’s shareholders will receive $60.70 per share in cash. This is just shy of the stock’s Friday closing price of $61.78.
EchoStar, which makes television set-top boxes and satellites, was spun off from Dish Network Corp. three years ago. EchoStar also owns SlingMedia, maker of the Slingbox set-top box, which allows pay-TV subscribers to remotely access video content from their homes via the Internet.
Headquartered in Germantown, Md., Hughes provides broadband satellite services through its HughesNet unit. More than half a million North Americans consumers now subscribe to HughesNet for high-speed Internet, video conferencing and VoIP telephony. The company also provides managed network services for a number of large enterprises, including Wal-Mart, General Motors and Best Buy, as well as government agencies.
Hughes Communications is owned by private equity firm Apollo Management, and was first rumored to be on the block last month. It remains to be seeen how the sale might affect affect Hughes’ $58.7M ARRA stimulus award. Read more
DishOnline.com Launches in Support of TV Everywhere
Posted by Steve Fravel on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 · ·
After several months of beta testing with a few thousand users, DishOnline.com, the online portal for Dish Network’s TV Everywhere platform, launched on August 24. Subscribers may access up to 150,000 video clips, full-length episodes and films through the website.
Subscribers also may remotely access their DVR receivers via the site to manage recordings, set timers or search through the program listings. Those who have a ViP 922 Sling-enabled receiver, or who have a Slingbox may watch live or recorded content from wherever they may be.
Dish Network Avoids DVR Shutdown
Posted by Steve Fravel on Friday, May 14, 2010 · ·
A federal appeals court today granted Dish Network’s request to rehear its patent case with Tivo. Tivo held that Dish Network and Echostar had violated the Tivo DVR patent.
In March a lower federal appeals court had ruled in favor of Tivo affirming the finding of a jury trial held in Texas. The May 14 ruling will allow Dish Network to persuade a new court that it’s DVR software does not violate the Tivo patent. This ruling effectively vacates the March decision. Read more