Dish Leaders Steadily Carve Out Niche

摘要

In 1998, Dish Network was in a fierce battle to lure customers and differentiate itself from its competitors. Dish executives, under founder and chairman Charles Ergen, consciously chose to focus on adding international and ethnic programming to its lineup. At the time, 31 million Hispanics were living in the U.S, and Dish began adding Spanish-language channels in earnest, knowing it had a good opportunity to attract those folks with content in their primary language. The satellite-TV platform gave Dish a technical advantage over bandwidth-constricted cable operators, and the company used that edge to offer packages that would set it apart. The gambit has proven to be a good one. Today, the number of Hispanics in the U.S. tops 54 million - 17% of the U.S. population - and Dish has continued to expand its Spanish- and English-language programming aimed at Hispanic viewers.