EchoSTAR Now Officially Dish Network

Satellite TV operator EchoStar has officially changed its name to Dish Network, and will spin its hardware business to a separate company.

Satellite television operator EchoStar has notified its shareholders that it plans to change its name to Dish Network, mirroring the name of the company’s most popular satellite TV offering. In addition, the firm plans to spin off its satellite receiver and commercial satellite lines into EchoStar Holding Company, which will eventually take on the name EchoStar Communications.

EchoStar is currently embroiled in a long-running patent infringement suit with DVR pioneer TiVO; the suit has not been going well for EchoStar, which is currently operating under a stayed injunction which would bar it from offering DVR functionality in its set-top boxes. (TiVo’s “time warp” patent, one of the key technologies in the dispute, was just upheld as valid.) At this juncture, it’s not clear whether Dish Network or its hardware spinoff company would wind up owning the disputed technology, leaving some industry watchers to speculate the name change and organizational shift is a move to shield the company’s satellite television operations from fallout resulting from the TiVo case. TiVo was awarded $74 million in damages in mid-2006.

The EchoStar spin-off company will also apparently include recent acquisition Sling Media, which develops “place shifting” technology enabling users to tap into their home media libraries—including live television—from anywhere in the world via broadband Internet.