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Organization and Business Activities
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2017
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.

Our subsidiaries operate one primary business segment.

 

Pay-TV

 

We offer pay-TV services under the DISH® brand and the Sling® brand (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, 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”).  Our Sling domestic service has a single-stream service branded Sling Orange and a multi-stream service branded Sling Blue, which includes, among other things, the ability to stream on up to three devices simultaneously.  All Sling branded pay-TV subscribers are included in our Pay-TV subscriber count.    As of September 30, 2017, we had 13.203 million Pay-TV subscribers in the United States, after we removed approximately 145,000 subscribers, representing all of our subscribers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, due to the impact of Hurricane Maria.

 

As a result of the completion of the Share Exchange with EchoStar, described below, we also design, develop and distribute receiver systems and provide digital broadcast operations, including satellite uplinking/downlinking, transmission and other services to third-party pay-TV providers.  See Note 2 and Note 11 for further information.