Organization and Business Activities

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Organization and Business Activities

Organization and Business Activities

1.             Organization and Business Activities

Principal Business

DISH DBS Corporation (which together with its subsidiaries is referred to as “DDBS,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and/or “our”) is a holding company and an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (“DISH”).  DDBS was formed under Colorado law in January 1996 and its common stock is held by DISH Orbital Corporation, a direct subsidiary of DISH.  We operate the DISH Network® direct broadcast satellite (“DBS”) subscription television service (“DISH Network”) in the United States which had 14.056 million subscribers as of June 30, 2011.  The DISH Network DBS System consists of our licensed Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) authorized 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.

On January 1, 2008, DISH completed the distribution of its technology and set-top box business and certain infrastructure assets (the “Spin-off”) into a separate publicly-traded company, EchoStar Corporation (“EchoStar”).  DISH, including us, 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.