dish network

Google and the satellite TV company Dish Network met recently to discuss a new wireless service that would pit it against giants like AT&T and Verizon, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

The talks were not "advanced" and may not go anywhere, the Journal said.

Dish has made clear over the past year that it would like to build out a wireless network using spectrum that it has been acquiring since 2008.

The full story is here (subscription required).

A federal judge today denied Fox Broadcasting's attempt to block Dish Network's AutoHop feature, which allows customers to skip commercials at the touch of a button.

Fox filed a lawsuit in May to block Dish's transmission of the network's programs in such a way that allows viewers to watch them without commercial interruptions, claiming copyright infringement and breach of contract. Broadcasters worry the technology could destroy the industry since program owners need the advertising revenue to help cover the cost of producing their shows.

However, Judge Dolly Gee for the U.S. District Court for California'… Read more

The Federal Communications Commission has paved the way for AT&T to finally use spectrum for its 4G LTE network that had been sidelined for 15 years because it caused interference with satellite radio services.

At its open meeting today, which was Webcast for the public, the FCC approved a compromise proposal that had been submitted by AT&T and Sirius XM Radio earlier this year that protects the satellite radio service by instituting unused guard bands of spectrum that are right next to the spectrum that Sirius uses.

All five of the commissioners on the FCC supported … Read more

So much for the rebirth of Blockbuster as a Netflix competitor.

Bloomberg reports that billionaire Charlie Ergen, founder and chairman of the Dish Network, has abandoned his effort to revive the onetime video-rental powerhouse. The original plan was to take Blockbuster retail locations and use them to sell Dish mobile devices, which could in turn be used to stream movies.

But U.S. regulators wouldn't grant immediate approval to a waiver that would allow Dish to transmit data and voice over its satellite spectrum, and Ergen decided to give up on the effort.

It's unclear what Dish will … Read more

Dish Network is said to be asking cable networks such as MTV to consider offering their shows on a Dish-owned Web service, according to a published report.

In a Bloomberg story today, the news wire said talks have also involved Univision Communications and Scripps Networks Interactive, parent company of the Food Network.

Bloomberg says Dish's pitch to the TV companies goes something like this: offer a relatively small bundle of shows for Web viewing at a discounted price. Financial terms weren't included in the story. A Dish spokesman said the company wasn't offering "any guidance regarding … Read more

People who've received unwanted sales calls from Dish Network may yet get some satisfaction.

The company is the target of a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission alleging that it made sales calls to millions of consumers even though they had asked not to be called again.

The calls reportedly violated the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule. According to that rule, a telemarketer cannot call someone who has asked to be taken off the company's call list, even if the person is not registered with the National Do Not Call list.

The FTC's lawsuit alleges that Dish … Read more

Friday's top tech stories teach us that Web giants may die, but ice cream is forever:

What's left of the social news aggregator Digg has been purchased by Betaworks, a company that runs Bit.ly and several other Web businesses. Digg will be folded into News.me, a daily news app and e-mail digest. Digg has been struggling and was slowly disassembled. A subsidiary of Washington Post bought some of the Digg talent, LinkedIn grabbed some patents, and on Thursday, Betaworks acquired what was left. The Wall Street Journal has sources saying Betaworks acquired Digg for around $500,… Read more

AT&T is looking to put some of its unused spectrum to work in a move that could reshuffle the wireless spectrum deck.

On Friday, the carrier filed a joint proposal to the Federal Communications Commission with satellite radio provider Sirius. In the filing, the two companies proposed a solution to some longstanding interference concerns between AT&T's unused WCS spectrum, which is in the 2.3 GHz band and Sirius's satellite radio service. As part of this new proposal, AT&T agreed to give up about 10MHz of this Wireless Communication Services or WCS … Read more

Dish's new ad-skipping feature has aroused anger among TV broadcasters, but the company's chairman sees it as a wake-up call to the industry.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen defended Ad Hop, the new feature that lets Dish viewers skip advertisements.

Cheap Web-based TV is a threat to pay TV, believes Ergen, a trend created in part by the networks themselves because of their failure to develop ads better targeted toward viewers. Ergen is hoping Ad Hop will convince TV networks to create "more meaningful" ads that people won'… Read more