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History of Dish Network
Dish Network is a Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service provider that offers satellite TV programming and interactive services to the millions of homes and businesses in the United States and the rest of the world. The company was launched by EchoStar in 1996 to help market its satellite TV services to the public. In 2008, the two businesses split as two entities: Dish Network Corporation and EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation. Dish Network then focused on the US-based marketing of Best Satellite TV deals while the latter serves as the back-end support for the services.
Today, Dish Network is one of the two largest satellite TV providers in the world. It continues to serve with comprehensive satellite TV packages and the leading satellite TV technology in the industry.
Here’s the timeline of Dish Network’s major events.
| Year | Event |
| 1980 | EchoStar was formed its chairman and CEO Charles Ergen as a distributor of C band satellite television systems. |
| 1987 | EchoStar applied for a DBS license with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). |
| 1992 | EchoStar was granted DBS license with access to orbital slot 119° west longitude. |
| 1995 (December) | -EchoStar launched EchoStar I, its first satellite. -EchoStar established the Dish Network brand name to market its home Satellite TV system. |
| 1996 (March) | Launch of Dish Network’s satellite services as one of EchoStar’s services. |
| 1998 | -EchoStar bought the broadcasting assets of a satellite broadcasting joint venture of News Corporation's ASkyB and MCI Worldcom. EchoStar now owns the 28 of the 32 transponder licenses in the 110° West orbital slot with a broadcasting capacity at a value of $682.5M. -Echostar partnered with Bell Canada to launched Dish Network Canada. |
| 2005 (January) | EchoStar bought the broadcasting assets of the troubled High Definition television (HDTV) satellite provider Voom, including its Rainbow 1 satellite co-located with EchoStar 3 at 61.5° West. |
| 2005 (April) | EchoStar expands its HDTV programming with the first 10 of 21 original Voom channels and mirror the channels on a CONUS slot. |
| 2008 (January) | EchoStar and Dish Network spun off into two separate businesses, Dish Network Corporation and EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation. Dish Network is the larger of the two resulting companies. It focuses on US-based marketing of satellite television, while EchoStar Corporation runs a majority of the satellite fleet and other signal infrastructure. |
| 2008 (December) | Dish Network began doing business in Mexico as a result of an agreement between Dish Network and the Mexican media conglomerate MVS. |
| 2009 (November) | Dish Network is broadcasting Satellite TV service to more than a dozen states and several cities, including Guadalajara, León, Monterrey, Irapuato and Mexico City. |
| 2009 (June) | Dish Network began airing free monthly concerts on channel 101. These concerts are available in HD programming. |
| 2009 (December) | Dish Network announced its 14 million customer milestone. This is more net customers than any company in the multichannel video distribution business. |
| 2010 (January) | -Dish Network introduced TV Everywhere to the public. -Dish Network partners with NeuLion to distribute live international TV channels via IPTV platform. |
| 2010 (February) | Dish Network introduces Tetris TV to the public. It’s an interactive TV game service with Oberon Media and The Tetris Company. |
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