DISH Network has been a household name in the United States for years, and with good reason. The company was one of the first to offer reliable satellite television to the general market. Their satellite services are often one of the only options for U.S. citizens living in the more rural parts of the country. Couple that with their history of award-winning customer service, and massive broadband spectrum purchases and it’s not hard to understand why the company is known to most of the country.
However, many people are still uncertain of what exactly DISH Network offers. And even more are curious as to why DISH Network’s stock seems to be on the decline. As it turns out, both of those questions have the same answer: broadband services.
Unlike major competitors like DirecTV, DISH Network does not actually offer internet services. That makes it difficult to offer packages that compete with competitors that also include internet service.
Luckily, DISH has been able to make up a substantial amount of ground with their much-loved streaming service, Sling TV. Sling TV currently has over 2.2 million subscribers, and seems to be growing every month. However, Sling has to do better in 2018 than it did in 2017 if it wants to be the catalyst that brings growth back to DISH Network.
According to reports, in 2017 DISH Network lost 995,000 satellite-TV subscribers, and gained 711,000 Sling TV subscribers. It’s worth noting that satellite-TV subscribers pay more than Sling TV subscribers, which means that new Sling TV subscribers need to exceed the number of satellite-TV subscribers lost during 2018.
Of course, that’s not the only way forward for DISH. A more likely, and often speculated, move for DISH would be for them to merge with another company that already offers broadband services. Unfortunately, while there have been countless merger rumors, none show any signs of coming to fruition anytime soon. The most likely candidate was Sprint before the T-Mobile merger happened. It is worth noting that the merger is still subject to regulatory approval, which is by no means a done deal. If regulators nix that deal it would not be unreasonable to think that Sprint and DISH Network will begin meeting very quickly.
DISH Network also has some of the largest broadband spectrum holdings amongst any American companies right now. Those holdings are subject to regulations enforced by the FCC. Since that deadline is coming up, we can expect to see DISH looking to monetize those spectrum holdings in the very near future.
The long and short of it is that no, DISH Network does not offer broadband services themselves. They do however work with third parties to offer various packages. If you are interested in a DISH package, or even if you just want to see what your options are, we encourage you to visit www.godish.com to learn more.
