Dish Network stocks soared on Monday after the company said it would issue a $2 per share one-time cash dividend and on speculation that the No. 2 satellite TV company was talking to programmers about creating a streaming video service that would rival offerings from satellite, telco and cable companies.
Dish stock was up as much as 7% ($1.67) to $25.15, before settling down later in the day. The stock was up 4.8% ($1.10 cents) to $24.60 each in afternoon trading.
According to a report in the NY Post citing unnamed sources, Dish has been talking to programmers about a streaming-only video service, possibly under its Blockbuster brand, that could allow it to offer a version of ala carte programming.
Most analysts believed that the hurdles to offering a streaming ala carte video service would be to big to clear - and programmers would have to be willing to scrap their existing model since every other distributor would clamor for the same treatment. Instead, many of the analysts that follow the company believe that Ergen will pursue the Netflix model of offering older TV shows and movies (instead of live network programming) for a fixed monthly price, basically an extension of the streaming service that Blockbuster already has.
