Dish Network: AutoHop, a Space Debris Fine and the $1 DirecTV Offer

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Charlie Ergen, Candy Ergen and Jim DeFranco founded EchoStar Communications in 1980 to sell 10-foot C-band satellite dishes in rural America. In 1987 they applied to the FCC for a direct broadcast license, won the 119 degrees west orbital slot in 1992, launched EchoStar 1 in late 1995 and turned on the DISH Network, short for Digital Sky Highway, in March 1996. Monthly subscriptions funded growth to more than 14 million subscribers by 2010, and in 2007 the satellite infrastructure business was spun off from the consumer TV service. Under CEO Joe Clayton, Dish spent over $3 billion on distressed assets, including Blockbuster Video for $322 million in April 2011, which became the Blockbuster Movie Pass bundle.

The 2012 Hopper DVR's AutoHop skipped commercials in recorded primetime shows, and ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC sued; Dish settled by disabling the feature for a period after broadcast. Sling TV launched in 2015 as an internet-delivered live TV service for cord cutters. Dish then bought Boost Mobile for $1.4 billion in 2020 as Sprint and T-Mobile merged, signed a $5 billion, 10-year roaming deal with AT&T in 2021, and by June 2023 covered 70 percent of the U.S. population with its own 5G network. EchoStar reacquired Dish in August 2023. In September 2024 DirecTV offered $1 for Dish's video business plus its debt, and bondholders rejected the required losses that November.

• Dish dropped regional sports networks from 2019 to 2021, and subscribers fell from over 14 million in 2012 to about 10 million in 2022.
• A February 2023 ransomware attack shut call centers, created waits of up to 14 hours and sent the stock to a 14-year low.
• In October 2023 the FCC fined Dish $150,000 because EchoStar-7 ran out of fuel before reaching its disposal orbit, the first U.S. space debris fine.
• EchoStar missed more than $500 million in interest payments, and regulators suspended its strategic decisions on Boost Mobile.
• On June 30, 2026, DISH DBS filed for Chapter 11 in Texas, with plans to wind down Dish Wireless.