Dish Network,
the fourth largest multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) in the
country, is one of just two satellite providers. (The other being AT&T’s DirecTV.) At the end of 2017, Dish had 11 million and
2.2 million subscribers nationwide to Dish and Sling TV, respectively. The net change in subscribers between 2016
and 2017 was -284 thousand as 995 thousand left Dish, but 711 thousand added
SlingTV.
Here are
some interesting decisions in Dish’s past:
Since
2008, Dish has invested $21 billion in acquiring wireless spectrum licenses and
related assets, and non-controlling investments in certain entities with the stated
plan to deploy a next generation 5G-capable network to support narrowband
Internet of Things (IoT). The first
phase of the network deployment is expected to be completed by 1Q2020.[1]
In 2011,
Dish acquired Blockbuster, once the largest retail movie rental chain, out of
bankruptcy for $320 million. It uses
Blockbuster’s assets to provide movie streaming and mail order services.
In 2011,
Dish made a bid to acquire Hulu. The bid
was rejected by Hulu’s JV partners.
In 2013,
Dish made an unsolicited $25.5 billion bid for Sprint, the third largest
wireless carrier. At the time of
the announcement, Charles Ergen, co-founder of Dish said a “Dish/Sprint merger
will create the only company that can offer customers a convenient, fully
integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice
services.” (Sprint was acquired by Softbank.). That same year, Dish made an unsolicited bid of
$6.3 billion to buy Clearwire, 50 percent owned by Sprint and the fifth largest
wireless company at the time. Dish would
later withdraw its bid and Sprint would acquire the remaining shares. (Within two years of the acquisition, Spring
ceased Clearwire operations.)
In 2015,
Dish introduced Sling TV as an alternative to the more expensive, channel-heavy,
cable-box/satellite dish-required service.
The virtual MVPD offered live and on-demand programming to television sets,
computers and mobile devices connected to the Internet. The service was expected to appeal to the
cord-cutters/cord-nevers (18-35 yr. old demographic). When the service was introduced at the
Consumer Electronics Show that year, Joseph Clayton, Dish’s chief executive at
the time, said in an interview “We are innovators. We are disrupters. We don’t
always make people happy because we challenge the status quo.”[2]
In the past several years, Dish has watched AT&T
acquire DirecTV, its main competitor, and Time Warner with its vast array of
content assets. It has watched Sprint
and T-Mobile announce a merger. It has
watched Verizon acquire AOL and Yahoo.
It has watched Charter acquire Time Warner Cable and Bright House
Networks to become the third largest PayTV provider in the U.S.
So, what should Dish do?
A deal should be forthcoming, but with whom? Wireless and Verizon or Comcast? Television Content and CBS or Hulu or…? OTT and one of the FAANGs?
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