Dish Network 2007 Annual Report Download - page 28

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Table of Contents
There are no arrangements or understandings between any executive officer and any other person pursuant to which any executive officer was
selected as such. Pursuant to the Bylaws of EchoStar, executive officers serve at the discretion of the Board of Directors.
Item 1A. RISK FACTORS
The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that
we currently believe to be immaterial also may become important factors that affect us.
If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
We compete with other subscription television service providers and traditional broadcasters, which could affect our ability to grow and
increase our earnings and other operating metrics.
We compete in the subscription television service industry against other DBS television providers, cable television and other system operators
offering video, audio and data programming and entertainment services. Many of these competitors have substantially greater financial,
marketing and other resources than we have. Our earnings and other operating metrics could be materially and adversely affected if we are
unable to compete successfully with these and other new providers of multi-channel video programming services.
Cable television operators have a large, established customer base, and many cable operators have significant investments in programming.
Cable television operators continue to leverage their incumbency advantages relative to satellite operators by, among other things, bundling
their video service with 2-way high speed Internet access and telephone services. Cable television operators with analog systems are also able
to provide service to multiple television sets within the same household at a lesser incremental cost to the consumer, and they are able to
provide local and other programming in a larger number of geographic areas. As a result of these and other factors, we may not be able to
continue to expand our subscriber base or compete effectively against cable television operators.
Some digital cable platforms currently offer a VOD service that enables subscribers to choose from a library of programming selections for
viewing at their convenience. We are continuing to develop our own VOD service experience through automatic video downloads to hard
drives in certain of our satellite receivers, the inclusion of broadband connectivity components in certain of our satellite receivers, and other
technologies. There can be no assurance that our VOD service will successfully compare with offerings from other video providers.
News Corporation owns a 38.5% controlling interest in the DirecTV Group, Inc. (
“DirecTV”). In December 2006, Liberty Media Corporation
(“Liberty”) agreed to exchange its 16.3% stake in News Corporation for News Corporation’s stake in DirecTV, together with regional sports
networks in Denver, Pittsburg and Seattle. The deal is expected to be completed during the second half of 2007. News Corporation and Liberty
each have ownership interests in diverse world-wide programming content and other related businesses. These assets provide competitive
advantages to DirecTV with respect to the acquisition of programming, content and other business opportunities valuable to our industry.
In addition, DirecTV’s satellite receivers are sold in a significantly greater number of consumer electronics stores than ours. As a result of this
and other factors, our services are less well known to consumers than those of DirecTV. Due to this relative lack of consumer awareness and
other factors, we are at a competitive marketing disadvantage compared to DirecTV. DirecTV also offers exclusive programming, and may
have access to discounts on programming, not available to us. DirecTV plans to launch two new satellites in 2007 in order to offer local and
national channel programming in HD to most of the U.S. population. Although we have launched our own HD initiatives, if DirecTV fully
implements these plans, they may have an additional competitive advantage.
New entrants in the subscription satellite services business would have a competitive advantage over us in deploying some new products and
technologies because of the substantial costs we may be required to incur to make new products or technologies available across our installed
base of over 13 million subscribers.
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