Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH), to its credit, has never been shy about sharing big ideas.
In November, the company was reported to be talking with media companies about licensing their channels to stream live on the Internet.
In September, it rolled out its Blockbuster Movie Pass, what it hopes could be a strong alternative to Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), especially for its own subscribers. It also reportedly made a $1.9 billion bid for online video service Hulu, which was on the auction block for months.
And in April, it laid out $320 million to acquire the assets of the bankrupt Blockbuster video business.
So, it comes as no real surprise that it has another idea for helping to make its satellite servicea bigger player in the market. CEO Joe Clayton said the satellite TV provider is looking at offering an over-the-top service to compete with those offered by other pay-TV operators.
"If Verizon can do it, why can't we?" he said in an interview, adding that putting the infrastructure fairly straightforward, but that the hurdle would be the expense of programming.
Obviously, Dish has plenty of experience with content providers and pays them enough that he believes there's an opportunity to expand the Dish service.
"Both of our companies buy a lot of content," he said of Dish and Verizon. "That gives us some leverage."
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
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