Dish Network 2015 Annual Report Download - page 61

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criminal penalties, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of
operations. Furthermore, the adoption or modification of laws or regulations relating to video programming, satellite
services, wireless telecommunications, broadband, the Internet or other areas of our business could limit or otherwise
adversely affect the manner in which we currently conduct our business, including our Sling TV services. If we become
subject to new regulations or legislation or new interpretations of existing regulations or legislation that govern Internet
network neutrality, for example, we may be required to incur additional expenses or alter our business model. The
manner in which legislation governing Internet network neutrality may be interpreted and enforced cannot be precisely
determined, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
See regulatory disclosures under the caption “Item 1. Business — Government Regulations” of this Annual Report on
Form 10-K for additional information.
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 that we may file from time to time, 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 DISH branded pay-TV 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”), including the carriage of full-power broadcasters’ HD signals in markets
in which we elect to provide local channels in HD. The carriage of additional HD signals on our DISH branded 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.
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, 2015. 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.
Item 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.