Las Vegas – Jan. 9, 2012 – [NASDAQ: DISH] – DISH Network L.L.C., the nation’s third largest pay TV provider, today introduced a whole-home high definition DVR entertainment system featuring the award-winning Hopper™ and Joey™.

The Hopper HD DVR and accompanying small Joey set-top boxes create a whole-home HD DVR entertainment system that lets DISH customers easily record, pause, and play back shows from any room in the home. While most whole-home DVRs do not have the same DVR functionality on every TV, the Hopper and Joey whole-home system offers the same DVR functionality on every TV, letting customers pause, play and rewind both live and recorded HD programs in up to four rooms.

The Hopper was unveiled by DISH CEO Joe Clayton at the 2012 International CES in Las Vegas today, and it is already winning honors as a CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Award honoree. Pricing and packaging will be announced later this quarter.

The main Hopper unit features:

• Three satellite TV tuners
• A two-terabyte hard drive for up to 2,000 hours of video entertainment
• Up to 250 hours of HD or up to 1,000 hours of SD user recordings
• Bluetooth for linking to devices such as wireless headphones
• Picture-in-picture for watching any two channels simultaneously

Combined with a Joey, the Hopper whole-home HD DVR system offers more advanced features:

• 750 MHz Broadcom processer – the fastest satellite receiver processor available today for a quick, responsive on-screen guide
• Approximately 50 percent more energy efficient for a four-room installation than previous models
• ZigBee RF4CE using a proprietary protocol remote with “remote control finder” alert
• High definition user interface
• Easy-to-use, fast, graphical, tile-based user interface with predictive search
• Small, sleek chassis for convenient placement

“Building on a heritage of award-winning DVRs, DISH is proud to be the first to introduce a groundbreaking product that delivers the most choices for TV entertainment by integrating multiple sources of video into one set-top box,” said DISH Network CEO Joe Clayton. “The Hopper gives our customers network TV shows on demand and thousands of family movie choices streaming or delivered to the hard drive. With its massive storage, the Hopper leads the industry in delivering the most entertainment options, bar none, for every member of the household.”

The Hopper – Endless Entertainment Options

The Hopper’s new, unparalleled feature, PrimeTime Anytime™ allows customers, with one click, to record using a single tuner all of the primetime TV programming from ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC – the networks that deliver the most popular shows during primetime. Once activated by a customer, PrimeTime Anytime records network programming in high definition, where available, every night and stores them for eight days after they have aired. This creates an on-demand library of approximately 100 hours of primetime TV shows, and makes it easy to catch up on episodes from last night and last week’s airing.

The Hopper can record up to six TV shows at once (two live programs and four PrimeTime Anytime shows) while allowing viewers to watch up to four different recorded or on-demand shows in four rooms of the house, simultaneously. This gives a family a variety of options to control or view their recordings and to watch shows in any room from a single Hopper.

The Hopper’s on-demand capabilities give access to DISH’s Blockbuster @Home™ for $10 per month which is now enhanced with more than 10,000 total titles streaming to the TV.

The Hopper also offers on-demand content for customers with limited or no Internet access with a feature called DISH Unplugged. This feature delivers via satellite hundreds of the most popular movies and TV shows to the hard drive, including transactional and authenticated videos on demand. DISH Unplugged provides a high quality picture without buffering and makes available many of the same streaming movie choices offered by Blockbuster @Home, including premium movie access.

And for subscribers of DISH’s America’s Top 120 programming package or greater, the Hopper provides whole-home music distribution from 73 SiriusXM channels, including album art and a unique collapsible list of music channels located at the top of the channel guide at Channel 99, making it faster and easier for SiriusXM music fans to find their favorite music.

Additionally, the Hopper will feature TV apps that give viewers real time access to Facebook, Twitter, Pandora and photo sharing, as well as games, news, weather, sports, and stock quotes.

TV Everywhere

Customers can manage the Hopper via the Internet at DishOnline.com or the DISH Remote Access app, providing the ability to control DVR recordings on their tablets, smartphones and computers. Connecting the Hopper with DISH’s Sling® Adapter provides customers the ability to watch and control all live TV channels, PrimeTime Anytime programs and the DVR on their computer, tablet or smartphone wherever they go.

The Hopper and Joey are designed and engineered by EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS). The Hopper works by distributing HD signals through existing co-axial cable in the home using the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) specification. The Hopper is powered by a Broadcom 750 MHz processor, the most powerful satellite TV processor available today delivering a fast and responsive on-screen guide and a graphical user interface that features channel logos to help search channels, movies or TV shows quickly. The advanced search platform also allows for navigation of programs across satellite TV, broadband and an optional external hard drive.

For more information about the award-winning Hopper and Joey by DISH, including technical specifications, please visitdish.com/hopper.

To watch live TV on the iPad, subscribers need a Sling Adapter from DISH and a broadband-connected compatible DISH HD DVR receiver. More information is available at dish.com/tveverywhere/remoteaccess.

About DISH Network

DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), through its subsidiary DISH Network L.L.C., provides more than 13.945 million satellite TV customers, as of Sept. 30, 2011, with the highest quality programming and technology with the most choices at the best value, including HD Free for Life. Subscribers enjoy the largest high definition line-up with more than 200 national HD channels, the most international channels, and award-winning HD and DVR technology. DISH Network’s subsidiary, Blockbuster L.L.C., delivers family entertainment to millions of customers around the world. DISH Network Corporation is a Fortune 200 company. Visit www.dish.com.

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In the past, I believe it was DishNetwork that required a phone-line hook-up for it’s equipment. Is that still a requirement for either of these companies now? If no phone line in house, what are other options: internet hook-up?

Thank you! I found your site very informative.

I can’t speak for Dish Network because I currently have DIRECTV. They don’t require a phone line or internet connection. Everything comes through the dish as far as I can tell, and i have whole home DVR. I even have an iPhone app that I can use to view upcoming shows and tell my DVR to record it.

So for Dish Network, you’ll have to call and verify, but my feeling would be no, they don’t require one anymore.

Hope this helps.

Dustin

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Can I watch YouTube videos on my TV?

Yes. If you have an HD DVR receiver or a model R22 DVR receiver and it’s connected to your home broadband Internet network, you can access and watch YouTube videos right on your TV. Here’s how it works:

1. Press MENU on your remote and select Smart Search
2. Type a title or other keyword(s) to search for videos
3. YouTube videos matching your search words will appear as the last items in your search results. They will be marked “YouTube” in the right column
4. To view, highlight the YouTube video using your arrow buttons and press SELECT, and then select Play.

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Do you have to have a HD TV to get Dish?
I’ve had friends that complain they lose TV with the slightest wind or rain, is that still a frequent problem with Dish?

Debbyc,

No, you don’t have to have an HDTV. Their receivers work with older models of TVs.

As far as loss of signal with satellite TV, your mileage may vary. In one home I had DISH Network for 3 years and I don’t remember it EVER going out. I live in Utah so we also deal with a lot of snow. Once we moved we got DISH again and it was great for about 2 years, then it started going out frequently with minor overcast. I suspect that it got moved a bit. Rather than paying for a technition to come look at it and adjust it, I just switched to DIRECTV. I didn’t have issues with DIRECTV after that (we had DIRECTV for over 2 years).

Then we moved once again to a new area and I got Comcast. Oddly enough, even though there was no satellite we kept having issues during bad storms. It made no sense to me. We are now back with Directv. It has gone out a couple times with bad snow storms. It seems to me that the best reception we had was with our first house where we had it mounted on the side of our house rather than the roof.

I hope this helps.

Dustin
http://www.direct-vs-dish.com

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Free DISH Remote Access App Transforms Android Tablet into a TV

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Jan. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — DISH Network L.L.C., today announced that DISH Remote Access, the free application that gives DISH Network customers the ability to watch their live and recorded TV on compatible smartphones, tablets and laptops, is now optimized for the higher-pixel Android™ tablet screens.

DISH Network customers with a broadband-connected, Sling-enabled™ device such as the Sling Adapter™ — a small placeshifting device that pairs with DISH Network’s ViP® 722 or 722k HD DVRs — can enjoy live and recorded TV viewing on Android tablets.

“DISH Network is the only pay-TV provider to offer a true TV everywhere solution, and now we’ve optimized that experience for the larger screen size of the Android tablets,” said DISH Network Chief Marketing Officer Ira Bahr. “Now Dish Network customers can enjoy their TV Everywhere experience on tablets like the Galaxy Tab, as well as the dozens of new Android-based tablet devices soon to be introduced.”

In addition to TV viewing, the DISH Remote Access app also gives DISH Network customers with compatible DVRs the ability to browse and search up to nine days of programming, schedule DVR recordings, manage conflicts, delete shows on multiple receivers, and transform the Android tablet into a fully-functioning remote control.

The DISH Remote Access app for Android tablets can be downloaded for free through the Android Market. DISH Remote Access is also available on compatible iPad, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android mobile phones and Blackberry® devices.

For more information about DISH Remote Access, visit www.dish.com/tveverywhere.

About DISH Network

DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH), through its subsidiary DISH Network L.L.C., provides more than 14.2 million satellite TV customers, as of Sept. 30, 2010, with the highest quality programming and technology at the best value, including HD Free for Life. Subscribers enjoy industry-leading customer satisfaction, the largest high definition line-up with more than 200 national HD channels, the most international channels, and award-winning HD and DVR technology. DISH Network Corporation is a Fortune 200 company. Visit www.dish.com.

SOURCE DISH Network L.L.C.

News Provided by Acquire Media

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Programs that are broadcast live, such as sporting events, may run over their scheduled timeframe. To ensure you don’t miss an exciting finish, at the time of booking, we’ll ask if you’d like to extend the recording time for any program that’s broadcast live.

Here’s how it works:

• Schedule a live broadcast recording
• View on-screen message asking if you’d like to extend the recording time
• The default setting extends recording by 30 minutes
• Modify the extension to be 1 minute up to 3 hours

This feature is currently available on the DIRECTV Plus® HD DVR (models HR20 and up) and the DIRECTV Plus® DVR (model R22) receivers.

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EW.com writes:

DirecTV will not carry G4 anymore after negotiations between the satellite provider and G4′s parent company, Comcast, ended Sunday. “At this time we are no longer negotiating and we have no plans to put G4 back up,” a DirecTV rep said in an e-mail. “We are constantly evaluating our lineup in a new world where programming costs continue to rise at significant rates. Since G4 is among the lowest rated networks based on the latest Nielsen data, we decided that it made sense to focus on preserving programming that is more relevant to our larger customer base.”

According to a statement from G4, “We have been trying to engage DirecTV in fair and reasonable discussions to continue to carry G4. G4 offered DirecTV the same basic deal we have had for the past three years. However they still plan to drop the network and deny G4 fans the only network that focuses on the popular gaming lifestyle.”

G4 is best known for Attack of the Show, its popular gamer-oriented series which launched Olivia Munn‘s career. It also airs Web Soup and Ninja Warrior.

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I have comcast triple play now, looking into switching need/want to have all 3 in 1…does dish offer phone and internet services? I know Direct TV does, but its not mentioned here. Thank you for this site. I found it to be very helpful.

Hi Rebecca,

Neither DIRECTV or DISH Network have phone & internet service. DIRECTV does partner with other companies to provide bundles savings & billing. I don’t know of any such bundles with DISH.

I personally have DIRECTV for satellite TV and Comcast for high-speed internet. I use Ooma (I used to have Vonage) for telephone which basically allows you buy their hardware and get free local & long distance phone service. I actually pay for Ooma premier which is about $100/year. Ooma runs over your high-speed internet so you do need internet service to use it.

Hope this helps.

Dustin
http://www.direct-vs-dish.com

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I asked him if he had a preference. His short reply was, “I have DIRECTV in my house.”

The more we talked, the more I learned why he prefers DIRECTV. Some of his answers made me laugh.

• He said DISH Network uses a lot of refurbished equipment to save costs
• DISH Network’s most popular DVR that controls two TVs often overheats and he has to replace them.
• DIRECTV’s satellites install much more securely on roofs. You know they won’t move around in the wind.
• “People with money always get DIRECTV. You will only see DIRECTV on the roofs in Park City.”

Still, having a been a DISH Network customer also, I know it has its advantages – the price point is the biggest. Take the above comments for what they’re worth.

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