Dish Bankruptcy - Business as Usual

[Scott Greczkowski]

The part I can't wrap my mind around is the $40 billion they have from selling spectrum to Space X ($17 billion) and AT&T ($23 billion). The FCC approved this last month, so I can't connect the dots on the bankruptcy piece of things. $40 billion doesn't sound like a company that needs to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

This is what confuses me as well.

The only thing I can think of is they are trying to file before they get the money so many of their debts go away because of the bankruptcy. But from everything I see reported online they are really cash positive.

 

[Bruce]

This is what confuses me as well.

The only thing I can think of is they are trying to file before they get the money so many of their debts go away because of the bankruptcy. But from everything I see reported online they are really cash positive.

I believe some of the funds used to purchase the spectrum were shares (stocks) in the companies, Space X was half, AT&T was all cash ($23 Billion).

And has the sales been approved by the government yet, until then, Dish might be out of cash to pay the bills, till the approval.

Found this-

SpaceX will pay up to $8.5 billion in cash and issue up to $8.5 billion in stock. SpaceX has also agreed to cover roughly $2 billion in interest payments on EchoStar's debt obligations through late 2027.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/spacex-buys-wireless-spectrum-echostar-17-billion-deal-2025-09-08/

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

It does not look like they filed anything... yet.

 

[snissen]

https://www.wsj.com/pro/bankruptcy/echostar-prepares-dish-dbs-bankruptcy-filing-as-soon-as-tuesday-b028dfe6

For those of us who don't have a WSJ subscription, could someone post the full text here?

 

[dishdude]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Dish borrowed lots of money to start a wireless company that was most likely doomed from the beginning. They bought spectrum at any cost to acquire enough bandwidth to achieve their goal. They signed leases and bought equipment and borrowed more money. They held onto the spectrum as long as possible. They then sold most of it to different companies and made a lot of money. Then they started to screw the companies that were installing and leasing the equipment and cell towers. Now they are going to claim bankruptcy under the Dish Network part of Echo Star while they have billions of dollars. So Dish basically took everyone's money that was involved in the financial part of this transaction made a huge profit is screwing everyone over from the banks to the little guy working on the towers and infrastructure.

That's pretty much how I remember everything going down.

 

[dishdude]

This is what confuses me as well.

The only thing I can think of is they are trying to file before they get the money so many of their debts go away because of the bankruptcy. But from everything I see reported online they are really cash positive.

I can't imagine a bankruptcy court signing off on debt to be discharged knowing this large infusion of assets is in the pipeline.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Doesn't Dish have billions after the deal with Space X last year?

That's what I said about all this money coming in why would DISH need to file bankruptcy? But Echostar is the parent company and DISH is just a sub company under them. So dump the debt and it will make it a better chance for TPG buying up DISH and SLING TV now with no debt or reduced manageable debt load. Remember that was the hold up before when the debt levels were attached and the stock holders didn't want to take a hair cut on their stock values if they changed to TPG.

I asked the Google A.I. the other day whether DISH would end up with DIRECTV and it said that most likely TPG who owns DIRECTV, will end up buying the two video portions of DISH/Sling TV and then they will also buy the two Satellites they just added for 110/119 that will last them till 2040.

They would end up using the Hopper receivers and do away with any legacy receivers DISH has. Combine the A.I. search feature from the Genie with the hopper. Repoint all the Directv customers to these two satellites because their existing satellites are near the end of their useful life. Then they will eventually put the Directv name on all the receivers in the future, retiring the DISH name.

Charlie Ergen is no longer in the Video business. They predicted this deal would happen in 2027 by years end. TPG has to finish up their deal with ATT to buy up all of DIRECTV this year.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I read that the new 110 satellite can do all 212 dmas using spotbeams. The 119 will be just the rest of the cable channels. That is a powerful spotbeam satellite to be able to do all of the dmas using one satellite.

 

[MikeD-C05]

OK, I asked the Google A.I. why DISH is going bankrupt when they have money coming in from Space X and ATT for selling their bandwidth and this is what it said:

EchoStar has not yet received the cash from the Multi-billion-dollar spectrum deals, and the pay TV unit is being crushed by a separate $25 billion debt load and continuous subscriber losses.

While EchoStar did arrange massive spectrum sales to ATT ($22.65billion) and to Space X ($17billion) , these funds are tied up or intentionally partitioned away from the failing satellite business.

Delayed CASH Flow: Because the transactions are awaiting regulatory finalization, EchoStar has not received the cash. The company even skipped bond interest payments on June 1st specifically because it is still waiting on the closing proceeds from ATT.

The Pay -TV Assets are Ring-fenced.

Corporate Shell Game: EchoStar's bankruptcy Strategy is a deliberate move by Ergen to isolate declining pay-TV operations.

Assets shifts: Before the filing EchoStar shifted unencumbered wireless spectrum licenses out of the DISH DBS unit. This places the highly valuable spectrum assets out of reach of traditional satellite creditors.

Dumping Liabilities: Filing Chapter 11 allows EchoStar to cut loose it's massive declining satellite liabilities while protecting the multi-billion dollar spectrum transactions at the parent level.

Overwhelming debt and Cord-cutting.DISH DBS debt levels are at $25 billion dollars.

No room to maneuver: An attempt to merge with Directv to ease this debt burden collapsed when bondholders refused to participate in required debt exchange.

Bleeding subscribers: DISH and SLING TV lost 177,000 net subscribers the first quarter of 2026 driving down revenues by $270 million year over year as consumers continue to cut the cord and dump traditional legacy pay- TV models.

 

[Juan]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Dish borrowed lots of money to start a wireless company that was most likely doomed from the beginning. They bought spectrum at any cost to acquire enough bandwidth to achieve their goal. They signed leases and bought equipment and borrowed more money. They held onto the spectrum as long as possible. They then sold most of it to different companies and made a lot of money. Then they started to screw the companies that were installing and leasing the equipment and cell towers. Now they are going to claim bankruptcy under the Dish Network part of Echo Star while they have billions of dollars. So Dish basically took everyone's money that was involved in the financial part of this transaction made a huge profit is screwing everyone over from the banks to the little guy working on the towers and infrastructure.

Cable tv/ satellite were doomed when charlie started that project...he was just a tad too late

 

[telstar_1]

That's our corporate system for you. One hand is rich, the other is poor and so the poor one gets bailed out from all of us

 

[nelson61]

The part I can't wrap my mind around is the $40 billion they have from selling spectrum to Space X ($17 billion) and AT&T ($23 billion). The FCC approved this last month, so I can't connect the dots on the bankruptcy piece of things. $40 billion doesn't sound like a company that needs to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

You.forgot to include the 2 percent of starlink they got as part of the spectrum sale. Probably worth more than all their other assets

 

[reubenray]

No. They are restructuring so they can be around a long long time.

How much will they jump up our rates now?

 

[Bruce]

I thought Elon Musk was going to save Dish?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I thought Elon Musk was going to save Dish?

Bruce, I think you selectively read things. Just read above all that stuff is answered.

 

[nelson61]

The word is ,a large majority of stakeholders had agreed to a reorganization and haircut plan. But, there were holdout, just like the ones that stopped the Directv deal.

So now, they have taken the other fork in the road. The judge will decide who gets the haircuts.

 

[Arctic_fox]

It does not look like they filed anything... yet.

i'm sure charlie has something up his sleeve

 

[Arctic_fox]

wonder if charlie will hang his spurs up after this

 

[tsunami2311]

Shocking maybe the are in for some really nice changes? or some more there is nothing wrong continues doing business as usual

I sure there will be some corporate bail out, Which I never under stood how that even a thing.Filling for bankruptcy as individual person and company are not the same thing

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

DISH & Sling TV Declare Bankruptcy & Will Shut Down Part of Its Operations | Cord Cutters News

DISH DBS Corporation and certain of its subsidiaries, including DISH Wireless, initiated prepackaged Chapter 11 proceedings on June 30, 2026, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The filing aims to implement a comprehensive restructuring plan that enables early...

cordcuttersnews.com