DISH Network announced a partnership with ViaSat Inc. at CES today to bring next-generation satellite broadband to homes across America bundled with their satellite television service. The company also announced a new DVR system that will bring impressive storage and recording abilities to their service.

The new satellite broadband service, called DISH Broadband, is the most appealing new option just because it’s the fastest satellite offered yet in the United States and it’s squarely aimed at rural Americans who can’t get access to broadband Internet.

“This is one more example of DISH meeting the needs of consumers,” DISH CEO Joe Clayton said. “The market potential for this new Internet service is substantial given the nearly eight million to 10 million mostly rural American households that are unserved and millions more left with slower broadband alternatives.”

The service will cost $79.98 per month with an installation starting at $99. ViaSat will handle the satellite delivery services while DISH will handle the billing and tech support.

During the same conference, DISH also took out time to announce their new set-top boxes Hopper and Joey. The Kangaroo names are intentional as that is the mascot for their new devices.

The Hopper is the main unit DVR that features three satellite TV tuners, a 2TB hard drive that can store up to 2,000 hours of video content, bluetooth for linking to devices like wireless headphones and picture-in-picture for watching any two channels at the same time.

The Joey is the smaller set-top box that connects to the Hopper unit. This allows for the most interesting feature of the new set-top box in that it can deliver up to four different on-demand or recorded shows to four rooms in the house. This essentially allows every member of the family to watch something different any time they please.

The other big feature of Hopper is PrimeTime Anytime which records every PrimeTime television show on every major network. This also means that the Hopper DVR can record up to six shows at once.

The Hopper will also offer the usual plethora of TV apps like Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, photo sharing and games.

While the new Internet service is definitely appealing, especially to those in rural communities, it’s the new DVR and set-top boxes that create the most excitement. It’s hard not to be in love with a system that can record and play back that many programs simultaneously throughout a household.

For example, recent reports indicate that Google is spending about $100 million to develop new, original content. Google is serious about making YouTube a cable competitor (let’s hope they don’t’ start charging for YouTube in general). YouTube is expected to get a redesign with a more TV channel-like flavor. They’ve recently expanded their paid movie offerings, to include new releases, and continue to expand that offering internationally.

TV and movie content from Hulu makes sense.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Google (along with DISH and Amazon) are still in the running for an acquisition of Hulu, and Yahoo, which has been in the running, is now out.

The Yahoo news is interesting in itself, given a couple of things:

1. Yahoo is been doing a lot to brand itself as a media company as of late.

2. Other rumors are going around that Microsoft is considering a bid for Yahoo, which still doesn’t have a CEO, beyond interim CEO Tim Morse.

As a media company, it could do Yahoo well to have what Hulu has to offer, but perhaps the future of Yahoo itself is just too uncertain.

While a Hulu acquisition would make a great deal of sense for Google, it would also make a great deal of sense for DISH or Amazon, both of which have scaled up their streaming video offerings of late.

Netflix member? Will you stick with it? Comment here.

It started even before Netflix announced its controversial pricing plans. Netflix launched a redesign, and people were up in arms over that. Little did they know that they would soon have to pay 60% more to keep the dvd-by-mail and streaming service combination they had enjoyed for so long. You probably know that story. While there were certainly plenty defending Netflix’s decision, there were considerably more visible negative comments on the move.

Not long after that, it was revealed that Netflix would be losing Starz content as part of its streaming offering. This is a huge blow to users, as this particular partnership has been a key provider of many of the newer movie titles including from Disney and Sony.

Then there was talk about Netflix cracking down on multiple streams per account, though Netflix said, “No Netflix member is limited to less than two concurrent streams.”

About a week later, Netflix lowered its subscriber projections and its stock plummeted.

Then, a few days after that, the company made the big announcement that it was just separating its DVD business entirely, making it a separate company called Qwikster. Users who want both services would now have to have two separate accounts with different companies. Some have speculated that Netflix separated the DVD business so it can sell it, and that may very well be the case.

Some think the whole thing presents an opportunity for Amazon to kill Netflix (and that Amazon should buy Hulu to aid that quest).

Then there’s Blockbuster, which was recently acquired by DISH Network. DISH announced Blockbuster Movie Pass, which includes: access to over 100,000 DVD movies, TV shows and games by mail (with no additional charge for Blu-ray), 3,000 streaming titles to the TCV, over 4,000 streaming movies to the PC, hundreds of on-demand TV shows, over 3,000 games by mail for Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii, unlimited exchanges of DVDs and games at participating Blockbuster stores. It also includes over 20 premium channels like MGM, Epix, Sony Movie Channel, PixL, etc.

This becomes available to DISH Network customers starting October 1 at plans starting at $10 per month. That’s going to give Netflix and Qwikster a run for their money, not to mention cable companies and DirecTV.

Netflix did announce a new integration to go along with Facebook’s new Open Graph. CEO Reed Hastings talked about it at f8 – specifically about how much better it was to get advice on what to watch from friends than from the Netflix algorithm.

“Facebook has always made it easy to discover great things through your friends,” said Netflix’s Tom Willerer. “We want to make streaming from Netflix a more social experience and through the new optional Facebook connection, Netflix makes it possible for you to connect with your friends over TV series and movies online.”

“The Netflix/Facebook integration empowers you as a Netflix member to share what you watch from Netflix with your friends on Facebook and to discover what your friends are watching both on Facebook and within the Netflix user interface,” he added. “This makes it easier and more fun to find new television series and movies to watch.”

The new Netflix Facebook integration will be available for the month’s over, the company said. Of course, that doesn’t apply if you live in the United States – where Netflix has existed since its inception before finally going international about a year ago.

The company says a U.S. privacy law prohibits them from offering it here, but the company is calling upon customers to write to Congress about it so they can share movie suggestions from Netflix with their friends on Facebook.

I bet Netflix customers are champing at the bit to help.

Does Netflix have what it takes to maintain its leadership position in the movie space or do you see competitors swooping in and taking advantage of recent moves from the company? Let us know what you think in the comments.

During their “Stream Come True” press event today, DISH Network unveiled Blockbuster Movie Pass, which brings streaming and DVD services together at one package, available for $10 a month.

Subscribers will have access to 3,000 titles available for streaming to TV – that number jumps to 4,000 when you are streaming to a computer. The DVD service has over 100,000 titles, any of which can be returned to a Blockbuster location once watched. With Movie Pass, you can’t pick up another DVD once you return yours, however. You’ll have to wait for it in the mail. On the plus side, there will be no up-charge for Blu-rays.

Movie Pass also incorporates over 3,000 games.

Here’s the problem: It’s only available for DISH Network customers, for now. So as it stands right now, super sweet deal for DISH subscribers – but Netflix killer it is not.

If you’re a DISH subscriber, it’s pretty much a no-brainer add-on at the $10 price point. If you’re not a DISH subscriber, it looks like DISH is hoping that this is an incentive to become one. Here’s what they are offering to new subscribers –

From Oct. 1 through Jan. 31, 2012, DISH Network is offering new customers Blockbuster Movie Pass included with their DISH Network subscription for one year when they subscribe to DISH Network’s America’s Top 200 programming package or greater and commit to 24 months of DISH Network service. This is up to $360 in savings.

Movie Pass will become available for existing DISH customers on October 1st.

At least for now, it looks like DISH wants to integrate Blockbuster’s current DVD and streaming services with their pay TV structure. And at first glance, this looks like a good way to do it. Current DISH customers will be getting a lot for just an extra $10 a month.

But until Movie Pass becomes available to everyone, it’s hard to truly think of it as a Netflix competitor.

Video streaming by Ustream

Of course Netflix is the biggest player when it comes to streaming video subscriptions, but you also have players like Hulu and Amazon stealing some of the pie. Apparently, Blockbuster thinks it can compete, because according to CNN Money, they plan on announcing all of this on Friday.

Blockbuster, which was purchased by DISH Network back in April, is set to hold a press conference tomorrow entitled “A Stream Come True.” Here, they are widely expected to unveil their new streaming service.

If true, Blockbuster has picked a rather interesting time to announce all of this. The past few weeks have been hell for Netflix, as a series of changes and announcements has shaken investors and customers alike.

On September 1st, the new pricing structure went into effect. No more $9.99 plans that include unlimited streaming and 1-DVD-at-a-time service – those plans are now separate and both cost $7.99. That drew some backlash, to say the least.

Just this week, CEO Reed Hasting posted a public apology to the Netflix blog, stating that they had made mistakes with how they handled the changes. The only problem was that enveloped in the apology was the news that Netflix is splitting off its DVD service entirely, into another company called Qwikster.

Between those events, Netflix announced that they would be losing all their Starz content after renegotiations failed.

Apparently, Blockbuster wants to try and swoop down when the beast is vulnerable. It wouldn’t be the first time, although this announcement would be significantly bigger than any other opportunistic moves they have made in the past.

After Netflix announced their price hike in July, Blockbuster went on a campaign, complete with a blog post called “Blockbuster Rescues Furious Netflix Customers.” They offered their Total Access DVD subscription as a free trial for those who wanted to abandon Netflix.

Blockbuster has never offered a streaming subscription. They have their aforementioned DVD subscription service called Total Access, and they stream movies via their website as well – but on a pay-per-view basis. A flat-rate unlimited plan would put them in direct competition with Netflix.

Now, if only Blockbuster could combine their upcoming streaming plan with their DVD plan as a bundle for, let’s say, $9.99?

It’s worth noting that this would have only affected older models of DISH DVRs, and the company said it would work to replace those still in use by customers. Now, here’s what the two parties have worked out, per an announcement released this morning:

Under the terms of the settlement, DISH Network and EchoStar agreed to pay TiVo $500 million, including an initial payment of $300 million with the remaining $200 million distributed in six equal annual installments between 2012 and 2017. TiVo, DISH Network and EchoStar agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies with prejudice and to dissolve all injunctions against DISH Network and EchoStar.

The parties also granted certain patent licenses to each other. TiVo granted DISH Network a license under its Time Warp patent (US Pat. No. 6,233,389) and certain related patents, for the remaining life of those patents. TiVo also granted EchoStar a license under the same ’389 patent and certain related patents, for the remaining life of those patents, to design and make certain DVR-enabled products solely for DISH Network and two international customers. EchoStar granted TiVo a license under certain DVR-related patents for TiVo-branded, co-branded and ingredient-branded products.

“We have tremendous respect for TiVo’s management, and we have always said that regardless of the outcome of the case, there were many ways that we could work together with TiVo,” said Charlie Ergen, Chairman and CEO of DISH Network. “The results of TiVo’s formidable intellectual property enforcement program speak for themselves, and consequently, we are pleased to put this litigation behind us and move forward. Additionally, we believe that our agreement with TiVo provides us a competitive advantage as one of the few multichannel operators with rights to operate under TiVo’s Time Warp patent, which ultimately will allow us to enhance the performance of our award-winning DVRs. We look forward to continuing to offer DISH Network customers the most choices in video service.”

“We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with DISH Network and EchoStar which recognizes the value of our intellectual property,” said Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo. “The compensation from this settlement, including the resulting reduction in legal expenditures, puts TiVo in an enviable financial and strategic position. This settlement, which brings the total compensation paid by DISH Network for use of TiVo’s ’389 patent family to over $600 million, demonstrates the significant return afforded to our shareholders by diligent enforcement of TiVo’s intellectual property rights. Those efforts will aggressively continue with other parties.”

Interestingly, the DISH and TiVo have formed a partnership in which they will work together to promote Blockbuster services (the company was recently acquired by DISH). “We are excited to work with TiVo to help develop our Blockbuster video service,” said Ergen. “Resolving the patent infringement case allows us to further engage with TiVo on a variety of exciting strategic initiatives, like Blockbuster, where we are uniquely positioned to collaborate.”

It will be interesting to see how another DISH collaboration – one with Google develops in the coming months. Recent reports indicate that Google is working on a new version of Google TV, which may be displayed as early as next week, at Google I/O, the company’s developer conference.

DISH was a launch partner for Google TV, announced at last year’s Google I/O event. Since its launch, sales of Google TV devices have been less than impressive. You must remember, however, that Google TV is a platform, as opposed to a device. If Google can continue to make the right partnerships, it may be harder to count the platform as dead in the water. If Google is able to follow Netflix’s lead (or even that of its own Android mobile OS) and get Google TV on a wide range of devices, it should have a better adoption rate. Android integration is supposed to get ramped up, so that should help. It could, in turn, help DISH Network as well.

DISH Network subscribers, before you freak out, you should know that this only applies to some older models, so there’s a good chance it won’t affect you at all. While DISH intends to fight this further, and if necessary, it also says it will work to replace the older models, with new non-infringing models.

DISH released the following statement:

“DISH Network and EchoStar are pleased that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously vacated the district court’s contempt ruling regarding our software design around. We are disappointed, however, that the Federal Circuit in a 7-5 split decision has affirmed the district court’s ruling on the disablement question. We intend to seek review of that part of the decision by the United States Supreme Court and seek a stay of the injunction while doing so. We also will be making a motion to dissolve the injunction based on TiVo’s recent representations to the Patent and Trademark Office substantially limiting the scope of the claims at issue in this case. Existing DISH Network customers with DVRs are not immediately impacted by these recent developments. The disablement ruling covers only certain older generation MPEG2 DVRs. We have already upgraded many of these customers and, if we are unsuccessful in obtaining a stay, we will work as quickly as possible to upgrade the remaining customers to our current generation DVRs, as these are not at issue in the ruling.”

TiVo also offered a statement:

“We are pleased that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sitting en banc affirmed the district court’s finding of contempt and award of sanctions against EchoStar for failing to comply with the district court’s injunction. This marks the second time that the district court’s contempt ruling has been upheld by the Court of Appeals. We look forward to the permanent injunction against EchoStar and Dish Network finally being enforced with respect to the DVRs they must now disable. This ruling also paves the way for TiVo to receive substantial damages and contempt sanctions regarding the DVRs that EchoStar and Dish Network failed to disable. With respect to the remand of the infringement provision of the District’s Courts order, we intend to pursue the most rapid path to resolution. We will continue our efforts to protect our intellectual property from further infringement by EchoStar and Dish Network.”

TiVo investors seem to be pleased. At the time of this writing, TiVo stock is up 35.84% in afternoon trading. DISH investors, not so much: -0.80%.

After closing adjustments, Dish expects to pay about $228 million in cash. The closing is expected in the second quarter.

“With its more than 1,700 store locations, a highly recognizable brand and multiple methods of delivery, Blockbuster will complement our existing video offerings while presenting cross-marketing and service extension opportunities for DISH Network,” said Tom Cullen, executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Programming for DISH Network. “While Blockbuster’s business faces significant challenges, we look forward to working with its employees to re-establish Blockbuster’s brand as a leader in video entertainment.”

Blockbuster has been struggling for quite some time, as players like Netflix and Redbox have eaten into customers’ DVD rental dollars. With more and more options for streaming/downloading movies online becoming available, things are not getting easier. That includes an emerging streaming-via-Facebook phenomenon that is likely to escalate.

It’s unclear what Dish’s plans for Blockbuster are at this point. Will it be mostly about content licensing? It looks like content exclusivity is becoming the weapon of choice in the battle for customers.

Netflix recently announced that it will offer the new David Fincher/Kevin Spacy project: House of Cards exclusively, followed by more exclusive programming. DISH recently put out an announcement touting itself as the only service to offer Reelz with The Kennedys in HD Nationwide.

“DISH Network has chosen to support an independent during a very important time in our network’s history,” said REELZCHANNEL CEO Stan E. Hubbard.

“DISH Network is always seeking ways to offer our customers unique and compelling viewing experiences,” said Dave Shull, senior vice president of Programming for DISH Network.

One of the biggest things Blockbuster has had going for it is getting some movies earlier than its competitors. This may end up translating into good things for Dish customers.

“Only Dish Network customers will have access to the most fully-featured Google TV experience available, which includes our unique pairing protocol for simultaneous search capabilities across Web and DVR content, as well as Dish Network’s VOD programming,” said Dish Network Chief Marketing Officer Ira Bahr.

Dish Network also makes its Google TV experience available to customers who purchase a Logitech Revue or Sony Internet TV powered by Google TV from retail outlets; however, the special $179 offer is only available when customers order directly from Dish Network.

There are at least 5 shows I regularly watch on FX, and I have DISH Network, so naturally, this presents a problem for me. 3 of these shows are currently in mid-season. Now, I get to figure out where to watch the next episodes. My first thought was Hulu. They have FOX and (FOX-owned) FX content. I remember watching full episodes of "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia" there some time ago. I remember that they even had episodes a week after they aired. I can deal with that if I have to. 

Too bad they don’t do that anymore. 

Looking at that show’s page now, there are no full episodes available, let alone the newest ones. Now the show’s page on Hulu says they’re able to post new episodes 30 days after they air, starting later this month. The same goes for "The League". The Same goes for the "Sons of Anarchy". Awesome. Thanks Hulu. Thanks FOX. 

AdAge has an interesting and timely article about a speech given by Hulu CEO Jason Kilar this week. According to the article, he basically told the "big media" to either serve consumers or lose them. AdAge’s Nate Ives reports:

That’s particularly true because media consumption is basically an optional activity, he said. It’s habitual and important for most of us, he argued, but no one’s going to actually die if they don’t see the latest episode of "30 Rock." And within media, as the magazine publishers in the room were well aware, mushrooming options mean you’ve got to serve consumers or lose them. It’s no sure thing that a young person’s going to watch "The Amazing Race" instead of visiting Facebook. "Content is discretionary, so you better focus on convenience," he told the audience.

Convenience. What a concept. It seems like FOX is going out of its way to make it as inconvenient as possible for me to see the shows I watch. Meanwhile, DISH claims to be keeping up the fight. 

"We regret that FOX Networks, the owner of some Regional Sports Networks, FX and National Geographic Channel, removed their channels from the DISH Network line-up," the company says.  "FOX has demanded a rate increase of more than 50%. An increase this large would force DISH Network to pass these costs on to our customers, which we are unwilling to do during these tough economic times."

"DISH Network will continue to work tirelessly for a fair agreement in order to bring these channels back at the earliest possible time."

Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll bring the channels back in time to see episodes that haven’t even aired on Hulu yet, so we’ll either have to DVR them while we wait to be caught up. 

By the way, none of these shows are even available on Hulu Plus for $9.99 a month.