DISH Network is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service that provides satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services to households and businesses in the United States, owned by parent company DISH Network Corporation. DISH Network was launched in March 1996, and, along with DirecTV, primarily competes with cable television providers throughout the United States. They are registered as a Nevada corporation. The corporate office is based at Meridian, Colorado, though the postal designation of nearby Englewood is commonly listed as the company's location in corporate filings and news accounts
Technical information
Satellite dishes
DISH Network offers different types of satellite receiving equipment for obtaining signals from its diverse satellite fleet. Most of their consumer boxes are manufactured by Sanmina-SCI Corporation to EchoStar specifications. Prior to the December, 2001 merger of SCI Systems and Sanmina, DISH Network receivers were produced at factories in Huntsville, Alabama and Fountain, Colorado. Currently, receiver assembly takes place in Guadalajara, Mexico.
DISH 300
DISH Network's first satellite antenna was simply called the "DISH Network" dish. It was retroactively named the "DISH 300" when legal and satellite problems forced delays of the forthcoming DISH 500 systems. It uses one LNB to obtain signals from the 119°W orbital location, and was commonly used as a second dish to receive additional high-definition or ethnic programming from either the 148°W or 61.5°W orbital locations.The 119°W slot is one of two primary orbital locations, the other being 110°W, that provide core services.
DISH 500
After EchoStar obtained the broadcasting assets of a failed joint venture between ASkyB and MCI Worldcom, it had more than doubled its capacity by adding 28 transponders at the 110°W orbital location. Since EchoStar also owned the adjacent 119°W orbital location it developed the DISH 500 to receive the signals of both orbital locations using one dish and an innovative dual-LNB assembly. Although the new 20-inch DISH 500 was slightly larger than the then-current 18-inch DISH 300 and DirecTV dishes it had the distinct advantage of obtaining signals from EchoStar's two adjacent satellite locations for a theoretical 500-channel capacity. The DISH 500, as a result, provided very large capacity for local-into-local service, nationwide programming, and business services. In order to migrate existing customers to DISH 500, DISH Network provides value-added channels in addition to local channels that can only be received with the DISH 500 and newer systems. Some of these channels exclusive to these newer systems are History Channel International, Boomerang, The Science Channel,Planet Green and Comedy Central. With the launch of EchoStar X in 2006 at 110°W thousands of local channels will only be available with a DISH 500 system.
SuperDISH, DISH 500+, and DISH 1000+
During DISH Network's quest for capacity, they had accumulated an array of satellite broadcasting technologies, orbital locations, and surplus capacity using non-mainstream technologies requiring larger dish sizes. To capitalize on these broadcasting assets, DISH Network started providing extensive ethnic programming from lower-powered satellites broadcasting in the non-DBS portion of the FSS band. DISH Network offers specialized equipment for these customers including larger dish antennas.[citation needed]
The SuperDISH, DISH 500+, and DISH 1000+ systems receive DBS signals from both of the primary 110°W and 119°W locations (129°W for DISH 1000+) as well as lower-powered FSS signals from either 121°W, 105°W, or 118.75°W. To underscore how exotic these systems can be the DISH 500+ and 1000+ systems receive circularly-polarized signals in the non-DBS portion of the FSS band—the only American satellite television service to do so