Englewood, Colo. — EchoStar Communications Corp. added a karaoke channel to its lineup of ITV programming, allowing customers to sing along to more than 20 different songs which will be rotated biweekly.
Dish Network said it would charge subscribers $4.99 monthly for The Karaoke Channel, which CEO Charlie Ergen first unveiled in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Customers can also give the service, available on channel 100, a free test run before they're prompted to pay a subscription fee, EchoStar said.
Karaoke vendor Sound Choice supplies content, and interactive-TV firm OpenTV Corp. built the interactive channel.
Dish Network customers can also purchase a $36.95 karaoke microphone mixer and a $16.956 microphone form Sound Choice, but an EchoStar spokeswoman said the service is also designed for customers to sing along in their living rooms without the need for a mike.
EchoStar subscribers with set-top boxes that run OpenTV middleware will be able to access the karaoke channel and other interactive content.
