Echostar (SATS) Risk Factors

We are, and may become, subject to various legal proceedings and claims which arise in the ordinary course of business, including, among other things, intellectual property disputes. Many entities, including some of our competitors, have or may in the future obtain patents and other intellectual property rights that may cover or affect products or services related to those that we offer. In general, if a court determines that one or more of our products or services infringes on intellectual property held by others, we may be required to cease developing or marketing those products or services, to obtain licenses from the holders of the intellectual property at a material cost, or to redesign those products or services in such a way as to avoid infringing the intellectual property. If those intellectual property rights are held by a competitor, we may be unable to obtain the intellectual property at any price, which could adversely affect our competitive position. See "Item 1. Business – Patents and Other Intellectual Property" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information. We may not be aware of all intellectual property rights that our services or the products used in connection with our services may potentially infringe. In addition, patent applications in the United States are confidential until the Patent and Trademark Office either publishes the application or issues a patent (whichever arises first). Therefore, it is difficult to evaluate the extent to which our services or the products used in connection with our services may infringe claims contained in pending patent applications. Furthermore, it is sometimes not possible to determine definitively whether a claim of infringement is valid.

The FCC and other national, state, local and international regulators have adopted rules or may adopt rules in the future that require us to share spectrum on a basis with other radio services. There can be no assurance that these operations would not interfere with our operations and adversely affect our business. In the event that the FCC and/or another regulator determines that our spectrum interferes with another service, we may be required to, among other things, find or develop a solution. We cannot make any assurance that we will be able to do so on an acceptable timeline or at all, or that such solution will not adversely affect our business.

Satellites are subject to significant operational risks while in orbit. These risks include, but are not limited to, malfunctions, commonly referred to as anomalies, which have occurred and may occur in the future in our satellites and the satellites of other operators. Any single anomaly could materially and adversely affect our ability to utilize the satellite. Anomalies may also reduce, among other things, the expected capacity, commercial operation and/or useful life of a satellite, thereby reducing the revenue that could be generated by that satellite, or create additional expenses due to the need to provide replacement or back-up satellites or satellite capacity earlier than planned and could have a material adverse effect on our business. We may not be able to prevent or mitigate the impacts of anomalies in the future. Meteoroid events, decommissioned satellites, increased solar activity and other adverse events also pose a potential threat to all in-orbit satellites. We may be required to perform maneuvers to avoid collisions and these maneuvers may prove unsuccessful or could reduce the useful life of the satellite through the expenditure of fuel to perform these maneuvers. Generally, the minimum design life of each of our satellites is 15 years. We can provide no assurance, however, as to the actual operational lives of our satellites, which may be shorter or longer than their design lives. Our ability to earn revenue depends on the continued operation of our satellites, each of which has a limited useful life. We generally do not carry in-orbit insurance on our satellites or payloads because we have assessed that the cost of insurance is not economical relative to the risk of failures. If one or more of our in-orbit uninsured satellites or payloads fail, we could be required to record significant impairment charges for the satellite or payload.

Operation of our Pay-TV and Broadband and Satellite Services businesses requires that we have adequate satellite transmission capacity for the programming and services we offer. While we generally have had in-orbit satellite capacity sufficient to transmit our existing channels and provide satellite internet coverage and some backup capacity to recover the transmission of certain critical programming and coverage, our backup capacity is limited. Our ability to earn revenue from our Pay-TV and Broadband and Satellite Services businesses depends on, among other things, the usefulness of our owned and leased satellites, each of which has a limited useful life. A number of factors affect the useful lives of the satellites, including, among other things, the quality of their construction, the durability of their component parts, the ability to continue to maintain proper orbits and control over the satellites' functions, the efficiency of the launch vehicles used, and the remaining on-board fuel following in-orbit insertion. Generally, the minimum design life of each of our owned and leased satellites ranges from 12 to 15 years. We can provide no assurance, however, as to the actual useful lives of any of these satellites. Our operating results could be adversely affected if the useful life of any of our owned or leased satellites was significantly shorter than the minimum design life. See "Item 1A. Risk Factors – Risks Related to our Satellites" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information.

In order to grow and remain competitive, we will need to adapt to changes in available technology, including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence and machine learning, continually invest in our 5G Network Deployment, increase 5G Network capacity, enhance our existing service offerings and introduce new offerings to meet our current and potential subscribers' changing service demands. Enhancing our 5G Network, including, but not limited to, our ongoing 5G Network Deployment, is subject to risks related to, among other things, equipment choices, network deployment and management, and service offerings. In addition, our 5G Network Deployment utilizes an O-RAN architecture, which is designed to, among other things, incorporate components sourced from various third-party suppliers. Generally, these third-party suppliers do not ensure that their products will integrate with components provided by other third-party suppliers. Therefore, we generally serve as the overall system integrator. As a result, adopting new and sophisticated technologies may result in implementation issues, such as scheduling and supplier delays, unexpected or increased costs, technological constraints, regulatory permitting issues, actual or perceived subscriber dissatisfaction and other issues that could cause delays in launching new technological capabilities, which in turn could result in significant costs or reduce the anticipated benefits of the upgrades. If our new services fail to retain or gain acceptance in the marketplace or if costs associated with these services are higher than anticipated, this could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

In July 2021, we entered into the NSA with AT&T to provide us with wireless network services. Under the NSA, we expect AT&T will become our primary network services provider. In addition, under the NSA, we have committed to activate on AT&T a minimum percentage of certain of our Wireless subscribers and to utilize AT&T's network for a minimum specified percentage of our domestic roaming data usage. We have agreed to pay AT&T at least $5 billion over the course of the 10-year term of the NSA, subject to certain terms and conditions. In 2020 in connection with the Asset Purchase Agreement, we entered into a master network services agreement with T-Mobile to provide us with wireless network services for a period of seven years (the "Prior MNSA"). In June 2022, we and T-Mobile entered into the MNSA, which amended the Prior MNSA. Under the MNSA, we agreed to a minimum purchase commitment to T-Mobile of $3.3 billion over the course of the MNSA, subject to certain terms and conditions. As a result, failure to meet the minimum commitments to AT&T or T-Mobile could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, failure to meet our minimum commitments would result in, among other things, the acceleration of financial commitments and potential termination of the NSA or the MNSA, respectively. As we continue our 5G Network Deployment, we currently depend on T-Mobile and AT&T to provide us with network services pursuant to the MNSA and the NSA, respectively, to offer Retail Wireless services. We rely on T-Mobile and AT&T to, among other things, maintain their wireless facilities and government authorizations and to comply with government policies and regulations. If T-Mobile or AT&T fails to do so, our subscriber activations and churn rate could be negatively impacted, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. As a result, failure to manage these relationships, including, but not limited to, effectively activating subscribers on the optimal network, transitioning subscribers to a different network, managing the existing subscriber base and vendor relationships and meeting certain minimum commitments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In the event that a termination under the NSA or the MNSA were to occur, our Wireless subscribers may need to obtain a new device, a new SIM card or receive a software update to continue receiving Wireless services from us. These required measures would cause significant disruption to our Wireless subscriber base which could result in, among other things, a significant increase in our churn rate. A termination of either the NSA or the MNSA, respectively, could result in significant financial and operational challenges to mitigate such termination, and there can be no assurances that any attempts to mitigate a termination event would be successful on an acceptable timeframe or at all.

Our products and networks we deploy are highly complex, and some may contain defects when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released, despite testing and our quality control procedures. Defects may also occur in components and products that we purchase from third parties. In addition, many of our products and network services are designed to interface with our customers' existing networks, each of which has different specifications and utilizes multiple protocol standards. Our products and services must interoperate with the other products and services within our customers' networks, as well as with future products and services that might be added to these networks, to meet our customers' requirements. There can be no assurance that we will be able to detect and fix all defects in the products and networks we sell, in a timely manner or at all. The occurrence of, and failure to remedy, any defects, errors or failures in our products or network services could materially affect our business.

The Copyright Act generally gives satellite companies a statutory copyright license to retransmit local broadcast channels by satellite back into the market from which they originated, subject to obtaining the retransmission consent of local broadcast television stations that do not elect "must carry" status, as required by the Communications Act. If we fail to reach retransmission consent agreements with such broadcasters, we cannot carry their signals. This could have an adverse effect on our strategy to compete with cable and other satellite companies that provide local signals. While we have generally been able to reach retransmission consent agreements with most of these local network stations, from time to time there are stations with which we have not been able to reach an agreement, resulting in the removal of their channels primarily from our DISH TV lineup. There can be no assurance that we will secure these agreements or that we will secure new agreements on acceptable terms, or at all, upon the expiration of our current retransmission consent agreements, some of which are short-term. In recent years, national broadcasters have used their ownership of certain local broadcast stations to require us to carry additional cable programming in exchange for retransmission consent of their local broadcast stations. These requirements may place constraints on available capacity on our satellites for other programming. Furthermore, the rates we are charged for retransmitting local channels have been increasing substantially and may exceed our ability to increase our prices to our subscribers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

As a result of certain acquisitions we have entered the retail wireless business. We have made substantial investments to acquire certain wireless spectrum licenses. We plan to commercialize our Wireless spectrum licenses through the completion of our 5G Network Deployment. A Wireless services business presents certain risks. Any of the following risks, among others, may have a material adverse effect on our future business, results of operations and financial condition. - The wireless services industry is dominated by incumbents. We have limited experience in the wireless services industry, which is an industry with increasing subscriber demands for data services that require increasing capital resources to maintain a robust network. The wireless services industry has incumbent and established competitors such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile with substantial market share. These companies have, among other things, greater financial, marketing and other resources than us, and have existing cost and operational advantages that we lack. Market saturation is expected to continue to cause subscriber growth rates in the wireless services industry to moderate in comparison to historical growth rates, leading to increased competition for subscribers. As the industry matures, competitors increasingly must seek to attract a greater proportion of new subscribers from each other's existing subscriber bases rather than from first-time purchasers of wireless services. Furthermore, the cost of attracting a new subscriber is generally higher than the cost associated with retaining an existing subscriber. In addition, we face increasing competition from wireless telecommunications providers who offer mobile video offerings or partner with others to create bundled offerings. Wireless mobile video offerings have become more prevalent in the marketplace as wireless telecommunications providers have expanded the fifth generation of wireless communications. As previously noted, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances among cable television providers, telecommunications companies, programming providers and others may result in, among other things, greater scale and financial leverage and increase the availability of offerings from providers capable of bundling video, broadband and/or wireless services in competition with our services. Such companies may be able to, among other things, pressure third-party content owners and programmers to withhold online rights from us; utilize their increased leverage over third-party content owners and programmers to reduce the price they pay for programming at the expense of other MVPDs, including us; thwart our ability to compete in the wireless market, by, among other things, refusing to enter into data roaming agreements with us; foreclose or degrade our online video offerings at various points in the broadband pipe; and impose data caps on consumers who access our online video offerings. See "Item 1. Business – Overview – Business Strategy – Retail Wireless" and "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Wireless – Retail Wireless" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information. - Our ability to compete effectively in the wireless services industry is dependent on a number of factors. Our ability to compete effectively in the wireless services industry depends on, among other things, our network quality, capacity and coverage; the pricing of our products and services; the quality of subscriber service; our development of new and enhanced products and services; the reach and quality of our sales and distribution channels; our ability to predict and adapt to future changes in technologies and changes in consumer demands; and our capital resources. It also depends on how successfully we anticipate and respond to various competitive factors affecting the industry, including, among others, new technologies and business models, products and services that may be introduced by competitors, changes in consumer preferences, the demand for and usage of data, video and other voice and non-voice services, demographic trends, economic conditions, and discount pricing and other strategies that may be implemented by competitors. It may be difficult for us to differentiate our products and services from other competitors in the industry, which may limit our ability to attract and retain subscribers. Our success also may depend on our ability to access and deploy adequate spectrum, deploy new technologies and offer attractive products and services to subscribers. For example, we may not be able to obtain and offer certain technologies, features or services that are subject to competitor patents or other exclusive arrangements. Our success and financial results also depend on, among other factors, our ability to achieve a lower cost structure in our 5G Network Deployment and commercialization of our network. As we complete our 5G Network Deployment and transition a portion of our business to a MNO from an MVNO, our results of operations and financial performance will depend in part on our ability to offer wireless services more cost effectively than we are able to do so through the use of our current MVNO agreements. - We depend on certain third parties to provide us with infrastructure and products and services. We depend on various key suppliers and vendors to provide us, directly or through other suppliers, with infrastructure, equipment and services, such as switch and network equipment, handsets and other devices and equipment that we would need in order to operate a wireless services business and provide products and services to our subscribers. For example, handset and other device suppliers often rely on one vendor for the manufacture and supply of critical components, such as chipsets, used in their devices. If these suppliers or vendors fail to provide equipment or services on a timely basis, or at all, or fail to meet performance expectations, we may be unable to provide products and services as and when expected by our subscribers. Any difficulties experienced with these suppliers and vendors could result in additional expense and/or delays in operating our Wireless services. Our efforts involve significant expense and require strategic management decisions on, and timely implementation of, among other things, equipment choices, network deployment and management, and service offerings. In addition, these suppliers and vendors may also be subject to litigation with respect to technology on which we depend, including, but not limited to, litigation involving claims of patent infringement. In addition, our 5G Network Deployment utilizes an O-RAN architecture, which is designed to, among other things, incorporate components sourced from various third-party suppliers. Generally, these third-party suppliers do not ensure that their products will integrate with components provided by other third-party suppliers. As a result, we generally serve as the overall system integrator. Failure of these products to, among other things, effectively interoperate with one another could adversely affect our financial performance, including, but not limited to, our ability to complete our 5G Network Deployment on a cost-effective or timely basis or at all. - Wireless services and our Wireless spectrum licenses are subject to government regulation. Wireless services and our Wireless spectrum licenses are subject to regulation by the FCC and other federal, state and local, as well as international, governmental authorities. These governmental authorities could adopt regulations or take other actions that would adversely affect our business prospects, making it more difficult and/or expensive to complete our 5G Network Deployment and to further commercialize our Wireless spectrum licenses or acquire additional licenses. The licensing, construction, operation, sale and interconnection arrangements of wireless telecommunications systems are regulated by the FCC and, depending on the jurisdiction, other federal and international, state and local regulatory agencies. In particular, the FCC imposes significant regulation on licensees of wireless spectrum with respect to, among other things, how radio spectrum is used by licensees, the nature of the services that licensees may offer and how the services may be offered, and resolution of issues of interference between spectrum bands. The FCC grants wireless licenses for terms of generally 10-12 years that are subject to renewal or revocation based on certain factors depending on the license including, among others, public interest considerations, level and quality of services and/or operations provided by the licensee, frequency and duration of any interruptions or outages of services and/or operations provided by the licensee, and the extent to which service is provided to, and/or operation is provided in, rural areas and tribal lands. There can be no assurances that our Wireless spectrum licenses will be renewed or that we will be able to obtain additional licenses. Failure to comply with FCC requirements in a given license area could result in revocation of the license for that license area. In addition, the FCC uses its transactional "spectrum screen" to identify prospective wireless transactions that may require additional competitive scrutiny. If a proposed transaction would exceed the spectrum screen threshold, the FCC undertakes a more detailed analysis of relevant market conditions in the impacted geographic areas to determine whether the transaction would reduce competition without offsetting public benefits. If a proposed spectrum acquisition exceeds the spectrum screen trigger, such additional review could extend the duration of the regulatory review process and there can be no assurance that such proposed spectrum acquisition would ultimately be completed, in whole or in part.

Our Broadband and Satellite Services segment operates in an intensely competitive, consumer- and enterprise-driven and rapidly changing environment and competes with a growing number of companies that provide similar products and services to consumer and enterprise customers. There can be no assurance that we will be able to effectively compete against our competitors due to, among other factors, their significant resources and operating history. Material competitive risks to our business include, but are not limited to, the following: - Competition from new or different technology compared to our offerings;- Competition from existing or new competitors entering the same markets we serve;- Government funding for competing products and services, reducing demand for our products and services; and - Competitive pressures to provide enhanced functionality for the same or lower price with each new generation of technology.

Our Pay-TV business faces substantial competition from established pay-TV providers and broadband service providers and increasing competition from companies providing/facilitating the delivery of video content via the Internet to computers, televisions, and other streaming and mobile devices, including, but not limited to, wireless service providers. In recent years, the traditional pay-TV industry has matured, and industry consolidation and convergence have created competitors with greater scale and multiple product/service offerings. Some of these services charge nominal or no fees for access to their content, which could adversely affect demand for our Pay-TV services. Moreover, new technologies have been, and will likely continue to be, developed that further increase the number of competitors we face with respect to video services, including, but not limited to, competition from piracy-based video offerings. These developments, among others, have contributed to intense and increasing competition, which we expect to continue. We face increasing competition from content providers and other companies who distribute video directly to consumers over the Internet. These content providers and other companies, as well as traditional satellite television providers, cable companies and large telecommunication companies, are rapidly increasing their Internet-based video offerings. See "Item 1. Business – Overview – Competition" and "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Trends in our Pay-TV Segment" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information. Mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances among cable television providers, telecommunications companies, programming providers and others may result in, among other things, greater scale and financial leverage and increase the availability of offerings from providers capable of bundling video, broadband and/or wireless services in competition with our services, and may exacerbate the risks described herein. Such providers may be able to, among other things, utilize their increased leverage over third-party content owners and programmers to withhold online rights from us and reduce the price they pay for programming at the expense of other MVPDs, including us; thwart our ability to compete in the wireless market, by, among other things, refuse to enter into data roaming agreements; underutilize key orbital spectrum resources that could be more efficiently used by us; foreclose or degrade our online video offerings at various points in the broadband pipe; and impose data caps on consumers who access our online video offerings. See "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Trends in our Pay-TV Segment – Programming" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information. We believe that the availability and extent of programming, including, but not limited to, unique programming services such as foreign language, sports programming and original content, and other value-added services such as access to video via mobile devices, continue to be significant factors in consumers' choice among pay-TV providers. Other pay-TV providers may have more successfully marketed and promoted their programming packages and value-added services and may also be better equipped and have greater resources to increase their programming offerings and value-added services to respond to increasing consumer demand. We may be required to make substantial additional investments in infrastructure to respond to competitive pressure to deliver enhanced programming and other value-added services, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to compete effectively with offerings from other pay-TV providers. Furthermore, this increasingly competitive environment may require us to increase subscriber acquisition and retention spending or accept lower subscriber activations and higher subscriber churn. Increasingly, we must seek to attract a greater proportion of new subscribers from our competitors' existing subscriber bases rather than from first-time purchasers of pay-TV services. In addition, because other pay-TV providers may be seeking to attract a greater proportion of their new subscribers from our existing subscriber base, we may be required to increase retention spending and/or provide greater discounts or credits to acquire and retain subscribers who may spend less on our services. Our SLING TV subscribers on average purchase lower-priced programming services than do DISH TV subscribers. Accordingly, an increase in SLING TV subscribers has a negative impact on our Pay-TV average monthly revenue per subscriber ("Pay-TV ARPU"). If our Pay-TV ARPU decreases or does not increase commensurate with increases in programming or other costs, our margins may be reduced and the long-term value of a subscriber would then decrease and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, as a result of this increased competitive environment and the maturation of the pay-TV industry, future growth opportunities of our DISH TV business may be limited and our margins may be reduced, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our gross new DISH TV subscriber activations continue to be negatively impacted by stricter subscriber acquisition policies (including, but not limited to, a focus on attaining higher quality subscribers) and increased competitive pressures, including, but not limited to, aggressive marketing, more aggressive retention efforts, bundled discount offers combining broadband, video and/or wireless services and other discounted promotional offers. In addition, we face increased competitive pressures from content providers and other companies who distribute video directly to consumers over the Internet. These content providers and other companies, as well as traditional satellite television providers, cable companies and large telecommunication companies, are rapidly increasing their Internet-based video offerings and direct-to-consumer exclusive and non-exclusive content. There can be no assurance that our gross new DISH TV subscriber activations, net DISH TV subscriber additions, and DISH TV churn rate will not continue to be negatively impacted and that the pace of such negative impact will not accelerate. In the event that our DISH TV subscriber base continues to decline or such decline accelerates, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We depend on certain third parties to provide us with programming services. Our programming agreements have remaining terms ranging from less than one to up to several years and contain various renewal, expiration and/or termination provisions. We may not be able to renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all, and these agreements may be terminated prior to expiration of their original terms. In addition, our ability to provide services under these agreements and negotiate acceptable terms depends on, among other things, the number of Pay-TV subscribers we have, our actual, perceived or anticipated financial condition and our negotiating power against each programmer, which can vary depending on the size and scale of such programmer. Negotiations over programming carriage contracts are generally contentious, and certain programmers have, in the past, limited our access to their programming in connection with those negotiations and the scheduled expiration of their programming carriage contracts with us. In recent years, our net Pay-TV subscriber additions have been negatively impacted as a result of programming interruptions and threatened programming interruptions in connection with the scheduled expiration of programming carriage contracts with content providers. In addition, certain content providers have begun making a greater percentage of their content available as a stand-alone product available direct-to-consumer and acceleration of this trend may result in lower net Pay-TV subscriber additions, higher net Pay-TV subscriber losses and increased DISH TV churn rate. We cannot predict with any certainty the impact to our net Pay-TV subscriber additions, gross new DISH TV subscriber activations, and DISH TV churn rate resulting from programming interruptions or threatened programming interruptions that may occur in the future. As a result, we may at times suffer from periods of lower net Pay-TV subscriber additions or higher net Pay-TV subscriber losses. We typically have a few programming contracts with major content providers up for renewal each year and if we are unable to renew any of these agreements on acceptable terms or at all, or the other parties terminate the agreements, there can be no assurance that we would be able to obtain substitute programming, or that such substitute programming would be comparable in quality or cost to our existing programming. In addition, failure to obtain access to certain programming or loss of access to programming, particularly programming provided by major content providers and/or programming popular with our subscribers, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, including, among other things, our net Pay-TV subscriber additions. Our programming signals in our Pay-TV business are subject to theft, and we are vulnerable to other forms of fraud that could require significant expenditures to remedy. Increases in theft of our signal or our competitors' signals could, in addition to reducing gross new DISH TV subscriber activations, also cause our DISH TV churn rate to increase.

The DIRECTV Transaction is conditioned on the expiration or termination of the applicable waiting period (or extension thereof) under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") and possibly the consent of certain other merger control authorities and other governmental entities as set forth in the Purchase Agreement (collectively, "Regulatory Approval"). These governmental and regulatory agencies have broad discretion in administering the applicable governing regulations. As a condition to their approval of the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement, those agencies may impose requirements, limitations or costs or require divestitures or place restrictions on the conduct of our business. The required approvals may not be obtained or the required conditions to the DIRECTV Transaction may not be satisfied, or, even if the required approvals are obtained and the conditions to the completion of the DIRECTV Transaction are satisfied, the terms, conditions and timing of such approvals are uncertain. Any delay in completing the DIRECTV Transaction could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.