Dish Network 2014 Annual Report Download - page 40

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our OTT services in the future, our ability to compete with other offerings could be adversely
impacted.
 The adoption or modification of laws and regulations relating to the Internet could limit or otherwise
adversely affect the manner in which we conduct our OTT services and could cause us to incur
additional expenses or alter our business model; and
 We rely on EchoStar to provide the IPTV streaming technology to support our OTT services. In
addition, we license our OTT service brand name “Sling” from EchoStar, and there can be no
assurance that we will be able to continue to license the “Sling” brand name on acceptable terms or at
all.
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.
We face increasing competition from other distributors of unique programming services such as foreign language
and sports programming, including programming distributed over the Internet. There can be no assurance that we
will maintain subscribers that desire these unique programming services. For example, the increasing availability of
foreign language programming from our competitors, which in certain cases has resulted from our inability to renew
programming agreements on an exclusive basis or at all, as well as competition from piracy-based video offerings,
could contribute to an increase in our subscriber churn. Our agreements with distributors of foreign language
programming have varying expiration dates, and some agreements are on a month-to-month basis. There can be no
assurance that we will be able to grow or maintain subscribers that desire these unique programming services such
as foreign language and sports programming.
Operational and Service Delivery Risks Affecting our Business
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.
If we are unable to continue improving our operational performance and customer satisfaction, we may experience a
decrease in gross new subscriber activations and an increase in subscriber churn, which could have a material
adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. To improve our operational
performance, we continue to make investments in staffing, training, information systems, and other initiatives,
primarily in our call center and in-home service operations. These investments are intended to help combat
inefficiencies introduced by the increasing complexity of our business, improve customer satisfaction, reduce
subscriber churn, increase productivity, and allow us to scale better over the long run. We cannot, however, be
certain that our spending will ultimately be successful in improving our operational performance, and if
unsuccessful, we may have to incur higher costs to improve our operational performance. While we believe that
such costs will be outweighed by longer-term benefits, there can be no assurance when or if we will realize these
benefits at all. If we are unable to improve our operational performance, our future gross new subscriber activations
and existing subscriber churn may be negatively impacted, which could in turn adversely affect our revenue growth
and results of operations.
If our gross new subscriber activations decrease, or if our subscriber churn, subscriber acquisition costs or
retention costs increase, our financial performance will be adversely affected.
We may incur increased costs to acquire new subscribers and retain existing subscribers. Our subscriber acquisition
costs could increase as a result of increased spending for advertising and the installation of more HD and DVR
receivers, which are generally more expensive than other receivers. Meanwhile, retention costs may be driven
higher by increased upgrades of existing subscribers’ equipment to HD and DVR receivers and by providing
retention credits. Additionally, certain of our promotions, including, among others, pay-in-advance, allow
consumers with relatively lower credit scores to become subscribers. These subscribers typically churn at a higher
rate.