Dish Network 2004 Annual Report Download - page 7

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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 document. 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 turn out to be correct, 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 document completely and with the understanding that
actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. Whether actual events or results will conform
to our expectations and predictions is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties
include, but are not limited to, the following:
• we face intense and increasing competition from the satellite and cable television industry; new competitors
are likely to enter the subscription television business, and new technologies may increase competition;
• DISH Network subscriber growth may decrease, subscriber turnover may increase and subscriber
acquisition costs may increase;
• partners in our co-branding and other distribution relationships may de-emphasize or discontinue their
efforts to acquire DISH Network subscribers, or may begin offering non-DISH Network video services,
which would cause our subscriber additions and related revenue to decline and could cause our subscriber
turnover and other costs to increase;
• satellite programming signals have been pirated and will continue to be pirated in the future; pirating could
cause us to lose subscribers and revenue, and result in higher costs to us;
• programming costs may increase beyond our current expectations; we may be unable to obtain or renew
programming agreements on acceptable terms or at all; existing programming agreements could be subject
to cancellation; foreign programming is increasingly offered on other platforms which could cause our
subscriber additions and related revenue to decline and could cause our subscriber turnover to increase;
• weakness in the global or U.S. economy may harm our business generally, and adverse local political or
economic developments may occur in some of our markets;
• the regulations governing our industry may change;
• certain provisions of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004, or SHVERA,
may force us to stop offering local channels in certain markets or incur additional costs to continue offering
local channels in certain markets;
• our satellite launches may be delayed or fail, or our satellites may fail in orbit prior to the end of their
scheduled lives causing extended interruptions of some of the channels we offer;
• we currently do not have commercial insurance covering losses incurred from the failure of satellite
launches and/or in-orbit satellites;
• service interruptions arising from technical anomalies on satellites or on-ground components of our DBS
system, or caused by war, terrorist activities or natural disasters, may cause customer cancellations or
otherwise harm our business;
• We are heavily dependent on complex information technologies; weaknesses in our information technology
systems could have an adverse impact on our business; we may have difficulty attracting and retaining
qualified personnel to maintain our information technology infrastructure;
• we may be unable to obtain needed retransmission consents, Federal Communications Commission
(“FCC”) authorizations or export licenses, and we may lose our current or future authorizations;
• we are party to various lawsuits which, if adversely decided, could have a significant adverse impact on our
business;
• we may be unable to obtain patent licenses from holders of intellectual property or redesign our products to
avoid patent infringement;
• sales of digital equipment and related services to international direct-to-home service providers may
decrease;
• we are highly leveraged and subject to numerous constraints on our ability to raise additional debt;