Dish Network 2014 Annual Report Download - page 62

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Our business depends on FCC licenses that can expire or be revoked or modified and applications for FCC
licenses that may not be granted.
If the FCC were to cancel, revoke, suspend, restrict, significantly condition, or fail to renew any of our licenses or
authorizations, or fail to grant our applications for FCC licenses, it could have a material adverse effect on our
business, financial condition and results of operations. Specifically, loss of a frequency authorization would reduce
the amount of spectrum available to us, potentially reducing the amount of services available to our subscribers.
The materiality of such a loss of authorizations would vary based upon, among other things, the location of the
frequency used or the availability of replacement spectrum. In addition, Congress often considers and enacts
legislation that affects us and FCC proceedings to implement the Communications Act and enforce its regulations
are ongoing. We cannot predict the outcomes of these legislative or regulatory proceedings or their effect on our
business.
We are subject to digital HD “carry-one, carry-all” requirements that cause capacity constraints.
To provide any full-power local broadcast signal in any market, we are required to retransmit all qualifying
broadcast signals in that market (“carry-one, carry-all”). The FCC adopted digital carriage rules that required DBS
providers to phase in carry-one, carry-all obligations with respect to the carriage of full-power broadcasters’ HD
signals by February 17, 2013 in markets in which they elect to provide local channels in HD. We have met this
requirement in all applicable markets. In addition, STELA has imposed accelerated HD carriage requirements for
noncommercial educational stations on DBS providers that do not have a certain contractual relationship with a
certain number of such stations. We have entered into such contractual relationships with the requisite number of
PBS stations to comply with the requirements. The carriage of additional HD signals on our pay-TV service could
cause us to experience significant capacity constraints and prevent us from carrying additional popular national
programs and/or carrying those national programs in HD. In addition, there is a pending rulemaking before the FCC
regarding whether to require DBS providers to carry all broadcast stations in a local market in both standard
definition and HD if they carry any station in that market in both standard definition and HD. If we were required to
carry multiple versions of each broadcast station, we would have to dedicate more of our finite satellite capacity to
each broadcast station. We cannot predict the timing or outcome of this rulemaking process.
Our business, investor confidence in our financial results and stock price may be adversely affected if our
internal controls are not effective.
We periodically evaluate and test our internal control over financial reporting to satisfy the requirements of Section
404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting
was effective as of December 31, 2014. If in the future we are unable to report that our internal control over
financial reporting is effective (or if our auditors do not agree with our assessment of the effectiveness of, or are
unable to express an opinion on, our internal control over financial reporting), investors, customers and business
partners could lose confidence in the accuracy of our financial reports, which could in turn have a material adverse
effect on our business, investor confidence in our financial results may weaken, and our stock price may suffer.
We may face other risks described from time to time in periodic and current reports we file with the SEC.