Dish Network 2012 Annual Report Download - page 5

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DISCLOSURE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
We make “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
throughout this report. Whenever you read a statement that is not simply a statement of historical fact (such as when
we describe what we “believe,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate,” “expect” or “anticipate” will occur and other similar
statements), you must remember that our expectations may not be achieved, even though we believe they are
reasonable. We do not guarantee that any future transactions or events described herein will happen as described or
that they will happen at all. You should read this report completely and with the understanding that actual future
results may be materially different from what we expect. Whether actual events or results will conform with our
expectations and predictions is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. For further discussion see “Item 1A.
Risk Factors.” The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following:
Competition and Economic Risks Affecting our Business
x We face intense and increasing competition from satellite television providers, cable companies and
telecommunications companies, especially as the pay-TV industry has matured, which may require us to
increase subscriber acquisition and retention spending or accept lower subscriber activations and higher
subscriber churn.
x Competition from digital media companies that provide or facilitate the delivery of video content via the
Internet may reduce our gross new subscriber activations and may cause our subscribers to purchase fewer
services from us or to cancel our services altogether, resulting in less revenue to us.
x Sustained economic weakness, including continued high unemployment and reduced consumer spending,
may adversely affect our ability to grow or maintain our business.
x Our competitors may be able to leverage their relationships with programmers to reduce their programming
costs and offer exclusive content that will place them at a competitive advantage to us.
x We face increasing competition from other distributors of unique programming services such as foreign
language and sports programming that may limit our ability to maintain subscribers that desire these unique
programming services.
Operational and Service Delivery Risks Affecting our Business
x If we do not continue improving our operational performance and customer satisfaction, our gross new
subscriber activations may decrease and our subscriber churn may increase.
x If our gross new subscriber activations decrease, or if subscriber churn, subscriber acquisition costs or
retention costs increase, our financial performance will be adversely affected.
x Programming expenses are increasing and could adversely affect our future financial condition and results
of operations.
x We depend on others to provide the programming that we offer to our subscribers and, if we lose access to
this programming, our gross new subscriber activations may decline and subscriber churn may increase.
x Our local programming strategy faces uncertainty because we may not be able to obtain necessary
retransmission consent agreements at acceptable rates, or at all, from local network stations.
x We may be required to make substantial additional investments to maintain competitive programming
offerings.
x Any failure or inadequacy of our information technology infrastructure could harm our business.
x We currently depend on EchoStar Corporation and its subsidiaries, or EchoStar, to design, develop and
manufacture all of our new set-top boxes and certain related components, and to provide transponder
capacity, digital broadcast operations and other services to us. Our business would be adversely affected if
EchoStar ceases to provide these products and services to us and we are unable to obtain suitable
replacement products and services from third parties.
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x We operate in an extremely competitive environment and our success may depend in part on our timely
introduction and implementation of, and effective investment in, new competitive products and services,
the failure of which could negatively impact our business.
x Technology in our industry changes rapidly and our inability to offer new subscribers and upgrade existing
subscribers with more advanced equipment could cause our products and services to become obsolete.
x We rely on a single vendor or a limited number of vendors to provide certain key products or services to us
such as information technology support, billing systems, and security access devices, and the inability of
these key vendors to meet our needs could have a material adverse effect on our business.
x Our sole supplier of new set-top boxes, EchoStar, relies on a few suppliers and in some cases a single
supplier, for many components of our new set-top boxes, and any reduction or interruption in supplies or
significant increase in the price of supplies could have a negative impact on our business.
x Our programming signals are subject to theft, and we are vulnerable to other forms of fraud that could
require us to make significant expenditures to remedy.
x We depend on third parties to solicit orders for our services that represent a significant percentage of our
total gross new subscriber activations.
x We have limited owned and leased satellite capacity and failures or reduced capacity could adversely affect
our business.
x Our owned and leased satellites are subject to construction, launch, operational and environmental risks
that could limit our ability to utilize these satellites.
x We generally do not carry commercial insurance for any of the in-orbit satellites that we use, other than
certain satellites leased from third parties, and could face significant impairment charges if one of our
satellites fails.
x We may have potential conflicts of interest with EchoStar due to our common ownership and management.
x We rely on key personnel and the loss of their services may negatively affect our businesses.
Acquisition and Capital Structure Risks Affecting our Business
x We made a substantial investment to acquire certain 2 GHz wireless spectrum licenses and other assets
from DBSD North America Inc. (“DBSD North America”) and TerreStar Networks, Inc. (“TerreStar”).
We will be required to make significant additional investments or partner with others to commercialize
these licenses and assets.
x We made a substantial investment to acquire certain 700 MHz wireless spectrum licenses and will be
required to make significant additional investments or partner with others to commercialize these licenses.
x To the extent we commercialize our wireless spectrum licenses, we will face certain risks entering and
competing in the wireless services industry and operating a wireless services business.
x Our Blockbuster business faces risks, including, among other things, operational challenges and increasing
competition from video rental kiosks and streaming and mail order businesses that may negatively impact
the business, financial condition or results of operations of Blockbuster.
x We may pursue acquisitions and other strategic transactions to complement or expand our business that
may not be successful and we may lose up to the entire value of our investment in these acquisitions and
transactions.
x We may need additional capital, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all, to continue
investing in our businesses and to finance acquisitions and other strategic transactions.
x A portion of our investment portfolio is invested in securities that have experienced limited or no liquidity
and may not be immediately accessible to support our financing needs, including investments in public
companies that are highly speculative and have experienced and continue to experience volatility.
x We have substantial debt outstanding and may incur additional debt.