Dish Bid For Sprint Could Revolutionize The Cable-Media-Telecom Industry

via businessinsider.com

In a surprise move, satellite-TV operator Dish Network has made a $26 billion bid for Sprint, the U.S.'s third-largest wireless operator.

Sprint is already in the approval process to sell a majority stake to Japanese telecommunications firm Softbank.

Dish's bid is higher than Softbank's and may therefore trigger a bidding war between the two suitors.

Dish has offered about $7 a share for Sprint, with a mix of cash ($4.74 per share) and $2.26-worth of Dish stock. Dish's stock fell about 5% on the news, and the total value of the offer will continue to fluctuate based on Dish's stock price. Dish estimated that the initial offer was worth about 13% more than Softbank's offer.

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Dish Network Makes $25.5 Billion Bid for Sprint Nextel

via mashable.com

Charging it will offer a "superior value for Sprint shareholders," Dish Network on Monday announced it was making a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel.

Dish is offering Sprint shareholders $17.3 billion in cash plus $8.2 billion in stock. Dish's bid of $7 a share is a 12.5% premium over Sprint's closing price on Friday. However, Monday morning Sprint's shares were up about 15% to $7.18 on the news. Dish's bid comes as Japan's SoftBank in October agreed to buy a 70% stake in Sprint.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

Dish Network Chairman Said To Be Seeking A Merger With T-Mobile USA

via techcrunch.com

Say what you will about Dish Network, but the Colorado company’s brass has some moxie.

The satellite media service provider has been trying for years now to link up with notable national wireless carrier to help operate a mobile service to sell alongside its current offerings, and according to a recent report from Bloomberg, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen has approached T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom about the possibility of a Dish/T-Mobile merger.

In case you haven’t been keeping tabs on Dish’s potential push into the wireless market, the saga has enough bumps and twists to rival a soap opera. This is far from the first time that representatives of the company have made these sorts of overtures towards major wireless carriers and their parent businesses. Just prior to the collapse of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger in December 2011, Dish Network CEO Joseph Clayton pointed out the possibility of striking a deal with T-Mobile in a bid to bolster Dish’s coffers and light up its own wireless service.

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Ad-skipping DVR prompts fight for the future of TV

via cnn.com

It turns out that consumers like the idea of watching TV shows with no other ads. And, surprise, the television networks are less than thrilled.

On Friday, news was continuing to emerge about a flurry of lawsuits between Dish Network, which last week released a tool to let its DVR customers do exactly that, and the major television networks.

It's a battle over a new technology tool. But, in some ways, it's a microcosm of the fight for the future of television and how we watch it.

"With Dish's aggressive move to please the end customer rather than advertisers, it's clear that in the fight for TV revenue the gloves have finally come off," James L. McQuivey, an analyst for Forrester Research, told The New York Times. "The fact that Dish would be willing to anger some of its most important content partners just goes to show how desperate these times we live in really are."

Two weeks ago, Dish rolled out Auto Hop, a feature for its DISH DVR that lets users who subscribe automatically skip ads while watching recorded shows.

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Dish Network's Commercial-Removing DVR Already Being Sued into the Ground by Networks

via gizmodo.com

We knew Dish Network's new Hopper DVR seemed too good to be true. Or too good to not be sued into oblivion, at least. Now comes news that FOX is suing Dish over the Hopper, and Dish is suing, well, everyone.

A few minutes ago, the New York Times' Brian Stelter confirmed and tweeted the news:

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The Best DVR Feature Yet: Dish Network Lets You Automatically Skip All Commercials

via gizmodo.com

Dish Network's new DVR was already the king of DVRs when it was first announced at CES and it's even better now: there's a new "auto hop" feature that'll allow users to skip all the commercials of a TV show.

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Dish Network Takes a BIG Design-Step in the Right Direction

The fortune 500 satellite-dish giant Dish Network just got a major facelift. If you have ever had the painful experience of visiting Dish Network's old website, well, to summarize the experience: it was a visual slap in the face. 

Design is crucial to the success of a business. A design communicates who you are and what you offer. Large corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the design and development of their media - especially their websites. In the case of Dish Network: This has to be one of the most drastic changes I have ever seen in a company's website design.

The design speaks for itself: "We are a Strong, Innovative, Professional, and Friendly company". The new website features a clean new design, some awesome home page animation, and a user-friendly layout. In addition, surfing through the site is simple with a new search bar in the center of the homepage, coupled with a great drop down navigation. 

So what does this mean for the company? Dish's biggest competitor is DirectTV. In recent years, DirectTV has been able to outsell Dish, due to no small part to their superior advertising and marketing. However, if this new website is any indication of that changing, we could see Dish taking the lead in their industry. 

- Jordan Driediger

    DM2 Studios

Posted via email from Inspiration

Dish Network in Talks About Internet TV

via online.wsj.com

Dish Network Corp. has approached several media companies about the possibility of licensing their TV channels for use on a new pay-TV service to be delivered over the Internet, rather than over Dish's satellite system, according to people familiar with the discussions.

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Dish Network Is Probably Buying Hulu

via gizmodo.com

Business Insider is reporting that Dish Network has put in the highest bid for Hulu at $1.9 billion. $1.9 billion! That beat out both Amazon (single tear) and Yahoo (haha!) but is still technically competing with Google's more complicated, provision filled bid.

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Dish network to announce Blockbuster branded Netflix streaming rival

via digitaltrends.com

Dish network is hosting a press event on Friday titled "A stream come true", where it is believed that it will announce an unlimited streaming competitor to Netflix.

If there was a perfect time to hold a press event Dish Network might have found it. Dish Network is hosting a press event on Friday that it has titled “A Stream Come True”, where is it rumored to be announcing a streaming service to rival Netflix. It is believed that Dish will be offering an unlimited streaming option at an unknown price under the Blockbuster brand name.

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Dish Network Planning Movie-Streaming Service To Take On Netflix

via businessinsider.com

It has not been a good couple days for Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
On Thursday, news broke that Starz walked away from contract re-negotiations, leaving the movie service without about 1,000 titles.
Now, it could get another competitor in the movie-streaming field.

Posted via email from Inspiration