Related Party Transactions (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended			0 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	9 Months Ended	0 Months Ended		1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended			3 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended								3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		12 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended				12 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended	0 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended			3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		0 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2014	Sep. 30, 2013	Sep. 30, 2014	Sep. 30, 2013	Dec. 31, 2013	Aug. 02, 2014 DISH Digital	Jul. 02, 2014 DISH Digital	Jul. 02, 2012 DISH Digital	Jul. 31, 2014 DISH Digital	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar XVI	Dec. 31, 2009 EchoStar XVI	Sep. 30, 2014 Santa Fe Lease Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 Inverness Lease Agreement	Oct. 02, 2012 Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement Minimum	Feb. 20, 2014 Transaction Agreement DISH Investors	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar	Aug. 02, 2014 EchoStar DISH Digital	Aug. 01, 2014 EchoStar DISH Digital	Apr. 29, 2011 EchoStar TiVo vs Dish Network and EchoStar Corporation item	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Remanufactured Receiver Agreement	Jan. 02, 2014 EchoStar Professional Services Agreement	Jan. 02, 2014 EchoStar Professional Services Agreement Minimum	May 31, 2013 EchoStar EchoStar VIII	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar 2012 Broadcast Agreement Minimum	May 31, 2010 EchoStar Certain Sports Related Programming Broadcast Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar EchoStar XVI	Dec. 31, 2009 EchoStar Nimiq 5 Agreement transponder	Dec. 31, 2009 EchoStar DISH Nimiq 5 Agreement transponder	Dec. 31, 2008 EchoStar QuetzSat-1 Lease Agreement transponder	Sep. 30, 2012 EchoStar QuetzSat-1 Transponder Agreement transponder	May 31, 2012 EchoStar 103 degree orbital location member	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar 103 degree orbital location member	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar Tax Sharing Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar 2012 TT&C Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar DBSD North America Agreement item	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar DBSD North America Agreement Minimum	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Application Development Agreement Minimum	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar XIP Encryption Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar XIP Encryption Agreement Minimum	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar RUS Implementation Agreement	Sep. 30, 2010 EchoStar RUS Implementation Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar 2012 Receiver Agreement	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar 2012 Receiver Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar 2012 Receiver Agreement	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar 2012 Receiver Agreement	Jan. 31, 2012 EchoStar 2012 Receiver Agreement Minimum	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Product Support Agreement Minimum	Jan. 31, 2010 EchoStar DISH Online.com Services Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar DISH Online.com Services Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar DISH Online.com Services Agreement Minimum	Feb. 23, 2010 EchoStar DISH Remote Access Services Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar DISH Remote Access Services Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar DISH Remote Access Services Agreement Minimum	Feb. 23, 2010 EchoStar Sling Service Services Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Sling Service Services Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Sling Service Services Agreement Minimum	Dec. 31, 2011 EchoStar Patent Cross-License Agreements Maximum	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2013 EchoStar Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar El Paso Lease Agreement item	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Radio Access Network Agreement	Dec. 31, 2013 EchoStar Radio Access Network Agreement	May 31, 2013 EchoStar EchoStar XV	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar T2 Development Agreement T2 satellite	Dec. 31, 2013 EchoStar T2 Development Agreement T2 satellite	Sep. 30, 2014 EchoStar Transaction Agreement	Feb. 20, 2014 EchoStar Transaction Agreement DISH Investors	Sep. 30, 2014 NagraStar	Sep. 30, 2013 NagraStar	Sep. 30, 2014 NagraStar	Sep. 30, 2013 NagraStar	Dec. 31, 2013 NagraStar	Sep. 30, 2014 HNS Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2013 HNS Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2014 HNS Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Sep. 30, 2013 HNS Hughes Broadband Distribution Agreement	Feb. 20, 2014 EchoStar and HSSC Transaction Agreement	Feb. 20, 2014 EchoStar and HSSC Transaction Agreement DISH Investors	Feb. 20, 2014 EchoStar and HSSC Investor Rights Agreement DISH Investors	Feb. 20, 2014 HSSC Transaction Agreement DISH Investors
Related Party Transactions
Minimum required notice period for termination of agreement by related party																									60 days
Automatic renewal period																										1 year																1 year												1 year			1 year			1 year
Minimum notice period for termination of a specific service																										30 days
Notice period for termination of agreement													6 months			180 days											60 days	30 days													30 days	90 days		30 days																										30 days
Purchased set-top boxes and other equipment from EchoStar																																															$ 293,000,000	$ 341,000,000	$ 883,000,000	$ 947,000,000
Net amount of the allocated tax attributes payable																																						83,000,000
Maximum grants receivable																																														14,000,000
Cost of sales - equipment, services and other	24,240,000	25,694,000	82,198,000	69,188,000																																									3,000,000
Minimum required notice period for termination by the reporting entity																													60 days										60 days				180 days								60 days	60 days			120 days			120 days			120 days
Agreement term											10 years			5 years																10 years		15 years	10 years			10 years																	2 years			5 years			5 years
Agreement term from commencement of service date										4 years																								10 years			10 years
Number of DBS transponders available to receive services																																32		32
Number of DBS transponders currently used																																	32	24
Number of transponders subleased																																			5
Term of renewal option										6 years		1 year			1 year																6 years									1 year			1 year						1 year																		3 years
Term of renewal option exercised																																																						1 year
Additional term of renewal option										5 years																					5 years
Number of successive one year renewal options																																								2
Satellite and transmission expenses																		171,000,000	131,000,000	481,000,000	370,000,000
General and administrative expenses																		26,000,000	23,000,000	81,000,000	68,000,000
Number of consecutive three year renewal options																																																																			4
Payments to third party by related party under extension option																																																														3,000,000
Subscriber-related expenses	2,132,583,000	1,976,712,000	6,305,951,000	5,812,325,000																																																											18,000,000	9,000,000	50,000,000	19,000,000
Broadband equipment purchased from EchoStar																																																																																5,000,000	17,000,000	20,000,000	49,000,000
Purchases from NagraStar																																																																											20,914,000	22,563,000	60,964,000	69,129,000
Payments to third party																																																														10,000,000
Amounts payable to NagraStar	303,623,000		303,623,000		355,023,000																																																																						13,924,000		13,924,000		20,954,000
Commitments to NagraStar																																																																											7,749,000		7,749,000		2,463,000
Property and equipment capitalization																																																																				18,000,000	13,000,000
Option given to the related party for acquisition of property, plant and equipment																																																																								55,000,000
Percentage of economic interest in the Hughes Retail Group																	80.00%
Tracking stock prohibited transfer period																																																																																					1 year	1 year
Notice period to exercise option to extend agreement																																											180 days						180 days
Notice period for extension of agreement																																																	1 year
Transfer of liabilities																																																																									44,540,000											59,000,000
Related party ownership interest in subsidiary (as a percentage)							10.00%	33.00%
Ownership percentage							90.00%	67.00%	90.00%
Voting interest (as a percent)						100.00%
Assets transferred to related party, net of deferred taxes																						6,000,000
Adjustments to Additional Paid in Capital Initial Fair Value of Related Party Ownership Interest, net of deferred taxes																						14,000,000
Non-voting interest (as a percent)																							10.00%
Settlement amount																								500,000,000
Initial settlement amount paid																								300,000,000
Aggregate of six annual installment amounts between 2012 and 2017, net of contribution from related party																								200,000,000
Litigation settlement number of annual installments																								6
Contribution from related party																								10,000,000
Percentage of litigation settlement amount to be made by related party																								95.00%
Reimbursements received under agreement																																																																							37,000,000
Historical cost of tracking stock																																																																									316,204,000	229,000,000													87,000,000
Capital transaction																																																																																				356,000,000
Cash in exchange for shares of series of preferred tracking stock issued																																																																																				11,000,000
Capital transaction recorded in additional paid-in capital																																																																									$ 51,466,000											$ 51,000,000