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The satcaster sets a standard $20 monthly charge.
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (December 22, 2006) — Does EchoStar’s HDTV pricing structure seem a little confusing? Well, if you do, you’re in luck. The satcaster said today that it will make its HDTV programming package a simple $20 monthly addition to any Dish Network package.
For instance, if you subscribe to Dish’s “Top 180″ package for $49.99 — and add the HDTV programming lineup — your monthly price will be $69.99.
Until now, the monthly high-def fee depended upon the number of HD and non-HD channels you received. But now you will get all non-premium HD channels for $20 a month in addition to the basic package price.
EchoStar has 30 national HDTV channels; it also offers local HD channels in some markets.
EchoStar also said overall programming prices will rise about three percent next year. The hike is less than what some cable operators are charging for the new year.

Increases of Dish packages less than average cable hike
By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News
December 22, 2006

Most Dish customers will pay about 3 percent more next year to watch satellite TV, a smaller increase than most cable customers are facing.
The America’s Top 120 package increases $3 a month to $46, while America’s Top 180 also goes up $3 a month to $56. America’s “Everything” Pack jumps $5 a month. Dish’s most popular package, America’s Top 60, holds the line at $29.99.
Prices for several other packages offered by EchoStar’s Dish Network stay the same: DishFamily remains $19.99, while DishLatino stays at $24.99. All of the prices are effective Feb. 1.
Price increases at cable providers, which are still rolling out their adjustments, are running at about 5.4 percent for basic analog video, according to a report by Sanford Bernstein. That’s still lower than usual. Cable prices increased 93 percent from 1995 to 2005, according to a recent Federal Communications Commission report.
Cable prices are determined in each market, and Comcast hasn’t announced 2007 rates for the Colorado market.
DirecTV, EchoStar’s larger satellite-TV rival, also hasn’t announced next year’s pricing.
Dish Network also is overhauling the names of its programming packages to reflect recent channel additions. America’s Top 60 is now America’s Top 100, a name that encompasses newly added NFL Network, ReelzChannel and, starting in February, 32 Muzak channels. America’s Top 120 becomes America’s Top 200, and America’s Top 180 is now America’s Top 250.
Douglas County-based EchoStar also simplified its high-definition pricing, making it a $20 monthly addition to any other Dish package.
Dish’s price increases were driven by higher programming costs, which increased 8 percent this year.
“We fight to keep our business costs low and make improvements to Dish Network, but we simply cannot offset the unavoidable costs of increased television programming fees,” the company said in a statement.

Liberty Media said this morning it entered into an agreement with News Corp. to exchange Liberty’s 16.3 percent stake in News Corp. for the media giant’s 38.5-percent stake in DIRECTV.

Liberty also picked up regional sports networks controlled by News Corp. in Denver, Pittsburgh and Seattle and cash through the much-anticipated deal.

Other news tidbits coming from the announcement … Liberty said it is expected Chase Carey – a long-time executive with the satellite TV company and News Corp. – will continue to serve as DIRECTV’s president and CEO. Liberty will appoint directors to fill board seats currently held by News Corp. representatives.

The boards of News Corp. and Liberty unanimously approved the transaction.

Liberty said the deal is expected to close in mid-2007. The transaction is subject to regulatory and News Corp. shareholder approvals and the receipt of a private letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to that tax ruling, it’s expected the Federal Communications Commission will scrutinize the deal.

This is just the latest sale involving DIRECTV. In 2002, General Motors, which at the time controlled DIRECTV parent Hughes Electronics, attempted to sell the satellite business to EchoStar, but the deal ran afoul with regulators worried about a combination of the nation’s two biggest DBS platforms. DIRECTV was then sold to News Corp. in late 2003

TECHNOLOGY — Beyond Broadband Technology has developed a new open-standard solution providing set-top box converters a non-integrated downloadable security system that supports both analog and digital signals. Company officials said the goal was to develop a low cost set top what would allow systems to efficiently migrate from analog to digital transmissions.

WIRELESS — AccuWeather.com entered into a content partnership with Mobileplay to be the company’s web weather provider. The deal will allow Mobileplay customers to gain simple access to a range of wireless weather information.