dish

AT&T appears to be laying groundwork for a potential deal with Dish Network to get its hands on the satellite provider's newly acquired wireless spectrum.

Last week, AT&T flexed some muscle with the federal government in an attempt to make Dish's wireless spectrum--which it acquired last year for $2.8 billion via deals with two failed wireless companies, DBSD North America and TerreStar Networks--harder for Dish to use and easier for some other company to acquire.

Specifically, AT&T asked the FCC not to place any "restrictions on the transfer and/… Read more

Buried among the gadgets, superthin screen OLED TVs, and all the other products we saw at CES this year was something not terribly sexy-looking, but something that will potentially affect millions of people living in rural America.

It's Exede, a new satellite broadband service from ViaSat that just launched this week. Yes, you heard right, satellite, those contraptions that orbit the earth, and until now a very sluggish way to receive Internet service (satellite has frequently been referred to as the Internet service of "last resort").

However, thanks to the launch of ViaSat-1, a next-generation satellite system … Read more

It turns out Dish was a bit more confident in Blockbuster's rental stores than it should have been.

"We are committed to keeping the profitable stores open that are generating positive cash flow, but there are ones that aren't going to make it," Dish CEO Joe Clayton said in an interview published yesterday by Reuters. "We will close unprofitable stores. We will close additional stores."

After Dish bought Blockbuster last year for $320 million, Dish said it planned to keep 1,500 Blockbuster rental stores open and maintain 15,000 employees. Clayton told Reuters … Read more

A popular TV show and movie discovery app just got a major update during CES that adds social components to its already full-featured cable listing arsenal.

Peel Personal TV Show Guide (free) is an app that changes the way you watch TV by gathering your personal preferences and giving you recommendations on your iPhone based on the data.

The polished interface of Peel asks you a few questions upon launch so it can deliver the type of shows you'll want to watch and tell you when they will show in your area. On first setup, the app has you choose your cable service, and then lists out several categories like Drama, Comedy, and Kids, and asks you to reorder the list by your personal preference with your favorites at the top. You'll then reorder a list of sports in the same fashion. When you're finished, you'll see the main interface of the app, with recommended shows that are currently playing in your area based on your preferences.

What we really like about Peel is how it lays out movies and shows by category so you can browse based on your mood at the moment.… Read more

Dish launches the "Hopper," with the first live kangaroo ever on stage at CES; Steve Ballmer explains why this is Microsoft's last CES keynote; and Justin Timberlake takes the stage at Panasonic's press event to announce MySpace TV.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded, from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

LAS VEGAS--At the Consumer Electronics Show here, satellite TV provider Dish Network went kangaroo crazy as it took the wraps off "Hopper," a new multiroom DVR that, with the help of "Joey" units, will let people watch recorded programs on TVs throughout their house.

The new DVR also lets users record prime-time programming on all four major networks at the same time.

The company also announced a new high-speed broadband service with partner ViaSat that will launch in the "first quarter." It's called Dish Broadband and will allegedly provide up to 12 Mbps … Read more

LAS VEGAS--People in rural America hankering for faster broadband service have a new option from Dish.

The company, which has changed its name from Dish Network, today at CES announced a broadband service with ViaStat that offers a big jump in speeds from those of typical satellite services. The service, which Dish announced with its Hopper whole-home DVR service, is expected to go live this summer when a new satellite is launched.

The company says the Dish Broadband service will deliver downstream rates of 12Mbps and upload speed of 3Mbps. For comparison, the fastest satellite-based broadband service from Hughes is … Read more

LAS VEGAS--More music, more magic, more memory, more movies.

That's the marketing message Dish is serving up here at CES, introducing a new kangaroo-themed, whole-home HD DVR system called the Hopper that includes a 2TB drive and can record up to six programs simultaneously while pushing content out to accompanying "Joey" boxes in up to three additional rooms.

The company has also announced a new high-speed Broadband service with partner ViaSat that will launch in the "first quarter." It's called Dish Broadband and it will allegedly provide up to 12 Mbps download and up … Read more

Not long ago, I wrote a piece speculating on what T-Mobile would do if the AT&T deal fell apart.

Well, looks like "if" has come true. So I thought I'd go back to some highlights from the earlier post.

By itself, T-Mobile is a wireless operator struggling to keep its best customers from leaving. Over the past several months, the carrier has aggressively cut prices and made itself a haven for bargain seekers--all for the sake of sparking a little growth. As a result, it resembles a large prepaid carrier more than one of the … Read more