Organization and Business Activities

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Organization and Business Activities

Organization and Business Activities

1. Organization and Business Activities

Principal Business

DISH Network Corporation is a holding company.  Its subsidiaries (which together with DISH Network Corporation are referred to as “DISH Network,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and/or “our”) operate two primary business segments.

· DISH Network.  The DISH Network® direct broadcast satellite (“DBS”) subscription television service in the United States had 13.945 million subscribers as of September 30, 2011.  The DISH Network DBS System consists of Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) licenses authorizing us to use DBS and Fixed Satellite Service (“FSS”) spectrum, our owned and leased satellites, receiver systems, third-party broadcast operations, customer service facilities, leased fiber network, in-home service and call center operations, and certain other assets utilized in our operations.

· Blockbuster.  On April 26, 2011, we completed the acquisition of most of the assets of Blockbuster, Inc. (“Blockbuster Acquisition”).  We acquired Blockbuster operations in the United States and in certain foreign countries.  Blockbuster primarily offers movies and video games for sale and rental through multiple distribution channels such as retail stores, by-mail, digital devices, the blockbuster.com website and the BLOCKBUSTER On Demand service.

On January 1, 2008, we completed the distribution of our technology and set-top box business and certain infrastructure assets (the “Spin-off”) into a separate publicly-traded company, EchoStar Corporation (“EchoStar”).  DISH Network and EchoStar operate as separate publicly-traded companies, and neither entity has any ownership interest in the other.  However, a substantial majority of the voting power of the shares of both companies is owned beneficially by Charles W. Ergen, our Chairman, or by certain trusts established by Mr. Ergen for the benefit of his family.