Organization and Business Activities

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

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 “DISH DBS,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and/or “our” unless otherwise required by the context) is a holding company and an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (“DISH Network”).  DISH DBS was formed under Colorado law in January 1996 and its common stock is held by DISH Orbital Corporation (“DOC”), a direct subsidiary of DISH Network.  We offer pay-TV services under the DISH® brand (“DISH”) and the Sling® brand (“Sling”) (collectively “Pay-TV” services).  The DISH branded pay-TV service consists of, among other things, Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) licenses authorizing us to use direct broadcast satellite (“DBS”) and Fixed Satellite Service (“FSS”) spectrum, our owned and leased satellites, receiver systems, third-party broadcast operations, customer service facilities, a leased fiber optic network, in-home service and call center operations, and certain other assets utilized in our operations.  The Sling branded pay-TV services consist of, among other things, live, linear streaming over-the-top (“OTT”) Internet-based domestic, international and Latino video programming services (“Sling TV”).  The Sling International video programming service (formerly known as DishWorld) was launched prior to 2015.  Sling International subscribers have historically been included in our Pay-TV subscriber count and represented a small percentage of our Pay-TV subscribers.  During 2015, we launched our Sling domestic and Sling Latino services. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, we have included all Sling TV subscribers in our Pay-TV subscriber count.  As of June 30, 2015, we had 13.932 million Pay-TV subscribers in the United States.