Commitments and Contingencies (Details 2) (USD $)							0 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2013	Feb. 20, 2014 Transferred Satellites-related obligations Subsequent event	Dec. 31, 2013 Long-term debt obligations	Feb. 20, 2014 Long-term debt obligations Subsequent event	Dec. 31, 2013 Interest expense on long-term debt and capital lease obligations	Feb. 20, 2014 Interest expense on long-term debt and capital lease obligations Subsequent event	Feb. 20, 2014 Satellite and Tracking Stock Transaction EchoStar and HSSC Subsequent event item
Commitments
Number of owned satellites transferred and leased back							5
Obligations and interest payments transferred							$ 59,000,000
Cash in exchange for shares of series of preferred tracking stock issued							11,000,000
Operating lease obligations
2014	3,994,594,000	148,000,000	1,005,778,000		838,801,000
2015	2,235,622,000	175,000,000	756,159,000		741,005,000
2016	2,774,378,000	123,000,000	1,504,669,000		655,467,000
2017	1,942,598,000	102,000,000	904,903,000		599,028,000
2018	2,139,735,000	102,000,000	1,205,197,000		528,620,000
Thereafter	10,177,230,000	329,000,000	8,032,607,000		1,355,824,000
Reduction in contractual obligation
2014				5,000,000		3,000,000
2015				5,000,000		2,000,000
2016				4,000,000		2,000,000
2017				4,000,000		2,000,000
2018				4,000,000		1,000,000
Thereafter				$ 22,000,000		$ 5,000,000