http://www.fiercecable.com/story/major-outage-hits-dish-network/2011-09-14
Major outage hits Dish Network
A malfunctioning satellite left Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) subscribers nationwide unable to watch HD channels Tuesday night. While service to some national cable networks had been by Wednesday morning, the DBS (direct-broadcast satellite) provider is still unable to deliver local broadcast channels to subscribers in some markets.
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Dish Network ran this banner at the top of its home page to communicate with subscribers who lost HD service. |
Dish said it has been "experiencing an interruption" impacting the 129 orbital satellite location, according to a statement posted on its website. Dish relies on the satellite at the 129 orbital slot to deliver hundreds of national cable networks and local channels in HD, including ESPN, TBS, TNT, USA Network and The Weather Channel.
The outage resulted in a flood of messages from Dish subscribers on Twitter and online forums for DBS users. Dish has also been using Twitter to communicate with some subscribers. The company has told subscribers that have lost HD channels that if they reboot their set-tops, they will be able to watch channels in standard definition.
It's not clear exactly what caused the satellite outage, how many subscribers were impacted, and what Dish is doing to restore service. Officials at Dish Network and SES Americom, which launched the satellite at the 129 location for Dish, didn't respond to requests for comment.
The outage is a big setback for Dish, which has used its broad offering of HD channels as the centerpiece of its marketing campaigns. Dish has posted subscriber losses in the last year, while rival DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) has grown its subscriber base. The outage, hitting Dish at the start of the fall TV season, could result in more subscriber losses.
For more:
- see statement from Dish Network
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