DISH NETWORK MAY BE T-MOBILE'S BACK UP DATE IF AT&T STIFFS IT

Dish Network had reportedly been considered a potential candidate to receive divested T-Mobile assets from AT&T if it couldn't secure initial approval of its acquisition from the government. Dish, however, has publicly opposed the acquisition -- and now it's clear that there were some ulterior motives in wanting to see the merger fall through, because Bloomberg reported this morning that the satellite provider wants to merge its spectrum assets with T-Mobile if things don't go so rosy in the acquisition.

According to CEO Joseph Clayton "We want to... create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We've got expertise in satellite TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we'll need some help with.We want to... create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We've got expertise in satellite TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we'll need some help with."

A partnership with T-Mobile would ideally help both companies: it would help Dish get one step closer to its goal of a wireless network that bundles smartphones, tablets and satellite under the same umbrella, and would cast a bright light on T-Mobile's questionable future.

DISH NETWORK LAUNCHES BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE PASS

Dish Network on Friday announced the upcoming availability of Blockbuster Movie Pass, an unlimited video streaming service akin to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly.” Beginning October 1st, Dish subscribers will have unlimited access to a small library of digital content that they can stream to a PC or to a TV using a standard Dish set-top box. While Netflix is moving in a completely different direction, having just spun off its DVD rental service to focus on streaming, Dish is sticking with the multi-pronged approach as Blockbuster’s best bet. “We’ve created a package that combines the best assets of the movie entertainment and video gaming industries with the convenience and integration provided by a multichannel video provider,” said Blockbuster president Michael Kelly in a statement. “Blockbuster Movie Pass is the ultimate programming package for every movie buff. The combination of DVDs by mail and unlimited in-store exchanges provides more than 100 million people living near Blockbuster stores, which are open 7 days a week, immediate satisfaction and unmatched choice.”

RUMOR: DISH NETWORK LAUNCHING BLOCKBUSTER STREAMING SERVICE

Dish Network already has its DishOnline streaming service for its own paying customers, but it looks like it's now set to take direct aim at Netflix with a standalone subscription service that will be open to everyone. According to Bloomberg, that will operate under the company's recently acquired Blockbuster brand and, in what's surely a bitter pill for Netflix to swallow, it's said to include titles from Starz (which also handles movies from Disney and Sony). As you'll recall from yesterday, Starz announced that it will be pulling all of its titles from Netflix in February of next year after it failed to reach an agreement with the company. Details on the service otherwise remain a bit light -- including any word of a possible subscription price -- although Bloombergsays it "may" also include on-demand Blockbuster movies that Dish customers will be able to watch on their TVs.

FOX RESTRICTING ACCESS TO NEW TV SHOWS TO "AUTHENTICATED" PAY TV SUBSCRIBERS

Starting this fall, for the first eight days after they air, watching Fox TV shows online will require a subscription to Hulu Plus or a participating cable or satellite company. So far Dish Network is the first and only provider to sign up its customers for access to the new walled garden on Fox's site but others looking to fill out their TV Everywhere lineups probably won't be far behind. While pay-TV networks like ESPN with ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app and EPIX have already gone the "authentication" route, Fox is the first of the broadcast networks to do so. The new rules go into effect August 15th, then we'll find out if Fox is driving cable cutters towards paying for TV, piracy, or just ignoring the latest episode of Glee altogether.

DISH NETWORK CLOSING 200 MORE BLOCKBUSTER STORES

Dish Network on Thursday revealed plans to shutter 200 additional Blockbuster stores, dropping the number of nationwide locations to approximately 1,500. Dish won an auction to take control of Blockbuster and its remaining assets this past April, after the fallen giant filed for bankruptcy last September. Dish said that the 15,000 employees working in Blockbuster locations that will remain operational will not lose their jobs. The company also said employees of the locations set to be shuttered will have the opportunity to transfer to other stores. Blockbuster failed to evolve with the shifting movie rental industry — when it finally did begin to offer new portfolio options to compete with the likes of Netflix, it neglected to add any real value or differentiation beyond competitive offerings. Coupled with the expense of operating physical rental shops, Blockbuster didn’t stand a chance. Dish Network acquired Blockbuster’s in April for approximately $228 million in cash, and it remains to be seen whether or not Dish can manage to transform the current business into something worthwhile.

DISH NETWORK AND ECHOSTAR TO PAY TIVO $500 MILLION TO SETTLE LAWSUIT

Dish Network, EchoStar and TiVo have come to a settlement on their long running patent dispute (since 2006) that will see the satellite company pay $500 million to settle all ongoing litigation. We stopped covering the various court judgements in this case last year as each side continued to file one stay and injunction after another, but this time it's finally over. The most recent court judgement came April 20th in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and found EchoStar in contempt of an earlier injunction despite modifications to its DVR software.

The companies have licensed certain patents to each other, including the infamous Time Warp patent that was at the heart of the dispute. Details are in the press release after the break, but TiVo's scored an upfront $300 million cash payment (Dish Network is also reporting today it added 58,000 subscribers and had a net income of $549 million last quarter, we guess there was some loose change rolling around after its Blockbuster and DBSD purchases), with the remaining $200 million to be paid out between 2012 and 2017.

DISH NETWORK KEEPING 500 BLOCKBUSTER STORES

Earlier this month, when Dish Network announced that it would be taking over Blockbuster's remaining assets, we openly wondered about what the deal would mean for the thousands of (mostly) empty rental stores still scattered across the country. Shuttering all of them seemed like a very real possibility, but it now looks like Dish has plans for at least a few of Blockbuster's old stomping grounds. On Saturday, the company agreed to assume the leases for about 500 of the 1,700 Blockbuster locations still in operation, according to papers filed with a New York Bankruptcy Court. Of course, it's still unclear what Dish plans to actually do with these stores -- or, for that matter, with the Blockbuster brand, as a whole. But it certainly looks like its long-term vision may incorporate at least some of Blockbuster's brick-and-mortar roots.

DISH NETWORK WINS AUCTION FOR BLOCKBUSTER

Back in September, Blockbuster announced that they would file for bankruptcy protection. Since then, corporate executives weighed their options to try and save the company from the dustbin, but finally reserved themselves to putting it up for sale in the hopes that another company would buy it at auction. This morning those hopes came true: Dish Network stepped in to buy the company for a total of $228 million in cash.

It’s unlikely that Dish Network is interested in Blockbuster’s chain of 1,700 video rental stores and retail locations: it’s almost certain that Dish really wants to get their hands on Blockbuster’s kiosk business, streaming video services, DVD mailing services, and their agreements with movie studios and television networks that produce its most watched and rented content. It’s still very likely that many, if not all, of Blockbuster’s neighborhood rental stores will close.

Whether or not Dish Network sees fit to prop up Blockbuster’s retail business remains to be seen, but it’s clear that they’re not the most valuable part of the deal. It’s far more likely that Dish Network will tie in its own satellite television services with Blockbuster streaming packages. For example, new Dish Network customers may see promotions and discounts if they sign up for Blockbuster streaming or disc by mail rentals. By contrast, current Blockbuster subscribers may be prompted to switch to Dish Network for their traditional TV services, if they have them.

Additionally, Blockbuster has made a significant push in recent years towards the mobile space, entering partnerships with a number of smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers to bundle their streaming video apps on new devices. Dish Network could also leverage those agreements to bring mobile television and streaming video to users much like Comcast does with its Xfinity TV mobile apps without having to build the apps themselves.

Ultimately, Dish Network’s acquisition of Blockbuster – if approved by the federal bankruptcy court handling the deal – could give the company a leg up against competitors like RedBox, which doesn’t have a traditional TV service to fight Dish Network with, and Netflix, which doesn’t offer either traditional TV or kiosks.

DISH NETWORK BUYS DBSD; COUNTERING DIRECTV/VERIZON LTE PLANS?

According to a report in the New York Times, Dish Network has decided to acquire satellite operator DBSD North America for $1 billion as the company emerges from bankruptcy. Kaufman Brothers analyst Todd Mitchell tells the paper that Dish's Charles Ergen is "playing chess" with the move, which is primarily about acquiring DBSD's spectrum. What would Dish do with this spectrum? "Dish also has some spectrum, and if you put DBSD and Dish together you could create a 4G or LTE network — it’s a situation where one plus one equals three," says Mr. Mitchell. Keep in mind that as our exclusive leaked photos from last year suggest (confirmed by a loose lipped executive) DirecTV is testing an LTE-based home-broadband service in conjunction with Verizon, so this could be Ergen's countermove. [DSLReports]

DISH NETWORK LAUNCHES REMOTE APP FOR ANDROID TABLETS

Dish Network is still on a mission to make sure that you get your TV Everywhere, and as of today, that means your Android tablet. We reported in November that the provider was bringing its Dish remote access app to Android, opening up the world of paid-for TV to even more smartphones. As with the smartphone app, Android tablet users will have to have a Sling-enabled device, like a Sling Adapter, to access their hard earned programming, and as with the smartphone, the tablet app is free. The Dish Network app's got all the same functionality as its predecessor: browse and search options, DVR scheduling/management, and a remote control function. [Engadget]