EchoStar And DISH Join Industry Effort To Improve Set-Top Box Energy Efficiency

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- EchoStar Technologies L.L.C., a wholly-owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), a leading global satellite services provider and developer of hybrid video delivery technologies, and DISH (NASDAQ: DISH), a leading pay-TV provider, are committing to the design, manufacture and sale of new energy-efficient set-top boxes (STBs). EchoStar is the exclusive provider of set top boxes to DISH, including DISH's award-winning Hopper™ Whole-Home DVR.

EchoStar and DISH are part of a coalition of pay TV industry leaders, serving more than 90 million U.S. TV households, that is working to promote the design and distribution of energy efficient STBs. The Set-Top Box Energy Conservation Agreement covers DVRs and non-DVR STBs that are included in pay TV subscriber packages. The coalition will meet regularly to review and update energy efficiency goals as technology advances allow additional energy savings to be realized.

"EchoStar is a current ENERGY STAR™ partner, and has been focused on energy efficiency for some time. The Hopper™ Whole-Home DVR and Joey™ thin-client devices we produce for DISH offer subscribers up to a 50% reduction in power consumption over previously available industry configurations," said Mark Jackson, president, EchoStar Technologies. "EchoStar has taken a worldwide leadership role in energy efficient pay TV solutions and we look forward to promoting energy efficiency with our colleagues across the entire industry."

Multichannel video service providers, including DISH, are pledging that 90% of the set-top boxes purchased will meet ENERGY STAR Set-Top Box Program V3 efficiency levels by the end of 2013. By comparison, DISH's current ENERGY STAR partnership requires 50% of purchases meet the highest energy efficiency rating.

"The advanced features our subscribers love such as whole-home HD DVR, Blockbuster @Home™, Primetime Anytime™ and AutoHop™ are currently delivered using one of the industry's most energy efficient solutions, the Hopper™ and Joey™," said Vivek Khemka, vice president of product management, DISH. "We look forward to continuing our ENERGY STAR Service Provider Program partnership as well as supporting the industry's voluntary initiative."

Nationwide, the initial commitments of the Set-Top Box Energy Conservation Agreement are projected to save up to $1.5 B (about 12.5 TWh) per year of residential electricity use as the agreement is fully realized. This means four fewer power plants will be required eliminating an estimated 16 million metric tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions. The voluntary agreement among the companies will take effect January 1, 2013.

For more information about EchoStar, please visit www.EchoStar.com.

For more information about DISH, please visit www.dish.com.

SOURCE EchoStar Corporation