We'd assumed it had already happened before, since both companies are controlled by Chairman Charlie Ergen, but Dish Network pay TV and Hughes Networks Systems satellite broadband are bundling their services for hard-to-reach rural customers for the first time. 

New customers who bundle Dish pay TV with the Hughesnet Internet will receive $5 off each service. The bundle also includes a two-year price-lock guarantee. 

Dish and Hughes are now under the same corporate roof, following the merger of Dish into EchoStar back in January.

"With the combination of Hughes and Dish technologies, innovation, and leadership focused on rural American homes, we are more strategically aligned, and the customer remains at the center of what we do," said Paul Gaske, chief operating officer, Hughes, in a statement. "Rural customers have traditionally had limited options for TV and internet in rural America. Dish and Hughes are solving those hurdles by further advancing connectivity in rural communities to provide the best value in TV and Internet."

Hughesnet ISP tiers start at $60 a month for a package that delivers 50 megabits per second downstream. The company's technology backbone is now backed by the new Jupiter 3 satellite, which was launched last July, and is capable of delivering speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

For now, the Dish and Hughes services are segregated as two distinct services delivered by different satellites to separate receiver dishes on customer rooftops. But the two companies are working on various other forms of integration that go beyond billing. 

There's reportedly talk of bundling virtual pay TV service Sling TV with Hughesnet. Dish's Android TV-based Hopper Plus digital video recorder system is also being optimized to work with Hughesnet tech. 

As it looks to complete its pricey national buildout of a 5G wireless network, it would certainly help EchoStar to improve the cash flow of its legacy business.

Dish satellite TV lost 213,000 customers in the first quarter, but that did represent a significant improvement over the 318,000 lost from January - March of last year. 

And Hughes lost 26,000 broadband customers in Q1 vs. a year-ago quarterly loss of 51,000. 

Dish Network has named Hamid Akhavan as CEO and said he will continue as CEO of sister company EchoStar. 

EchoStar and Dish have agreed to merge. The transaction is still being reviewed by the government, but the company expects it to close by year-end.

 Akhavan has been designated to be the CEO of the combined companies.

Dish laid off 500 people after reporting “astonishingly bad” third quarter financial results, including a $139 million loss. 

Dish president and CEO Erik Carlson left the company after 28 years earlier this month.

“Hamid brings a unique set of skills to Dish building off his experience in the technology, telecom, private equity and investment sectors,” Dish co-founder and chairman Charlie Ergen said. “An engineer by background, he's financially astute and a seasoned manager. He currently serves EchoStar, Dish's sister company, as CEO and will lead both companies in order to hit the ground running once the merger with EchoStar is complete.”

Before joining Dish and EchoStar, Akhavan was a partner at Twin Point Capital, an investment firm, and a founding partner of Long Arc Capital LLC. He held a variety of executive positions including CEO of Unify Inc. (formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications), chief operating officer of Deutsche Telekom and CEO of T-Mobile International.

“There is tremendous opportunity at Dish, and even more so once it's combined with EchoStar,” Akhavan said. “This appointment will enable me and the teams to get a headstart in preparing to run the combined business of the companies.”

EchoStar Corp. said the EchoStar 105/SES-11 has reached its 105 degree West orbital position and is now available for commercial service.

The new bird is a high-powered, hybrid Ku and C-band communications satellite for EchoStar and SES with a 24x36 Ku-band payload. It replaces the capacity that EchoStar previously offered via the AMC-15 satellite.

Built by Airbus Defence and Space, the satellite is based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, and will add Ku-band coverage for North America and be capable of supporting apps that include video distribution, data communications and backhaul services.

EchoStar 105/SES-11 was launched on Oct. 11, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“EchoStar 105 provides coverage of the 50 U.S. states and offers increased reach to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean,” Anders Johnson, chief strategy officer of EchoStar and president of EchoStar Satellite Services, said in a statement. “We are excited to be able to offer the tailored Ku-band capacity of this high-powered satellite to our current and prospective customers in the enterprise, media and broadcast, and U.S. government service provider markets.”

EchoStar Corp. said it has completed in-orbit testing and handover of the EchoStar XXI satellite from Space Systems Loral, the company that manufactured the satellite.

EchoStar XXI, a satellite that will provide “enhanced” mobile connectivity for Europe, is now in the hands of EchoStar’s satellite operations team, which is managing flight operations from EchoStar XXI’s primary satellite earth location located in Griesheim, Germany, along with a secondary station in Rambouillet, France.

EchoStar XXI, launched on June 8, 2017, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, is located at a geosynchronous orbital location of 10.25° East longitude, and carries an S-band Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) payload that will enable EchoStar Mobile Limited to provide mobile connectivity for small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations and government agencies throughout Europe.  

EchoStar Mobile and EchoStar subsidiary Hughes Network Systems Europe have begun the process of end-to-end integration of EchoStar XXI and the satellite and terrestrial network. EchoStar Mobile said it’s scheduled to launch commercial services across the European Union upon completion of this integration, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2017.

"The capacity that EchoStar XXI will provide to the EchoStar Mobile satellite-based network will enable reliable, IP-based MSS connectivity for voice and data throughout Europe, including all 28 members of the European Union,” Anders Johnson, executive director of EchoStar Mobile Limited and president of EchoStar Satellite Services, said in a statement.

EchoStar Corp. confirmed that “fewer than 100” of about 4,000 employees were recently laid off amid shifts in the market.

“EchoStar implemented a small reduction in force in late January, in response to recent changes in the marketplace,” Michael T. Dugan, CEO and president of EchoStar, said in a statement. “This reduction in force has impacted fewer than 100 of our nearly 4000 employees. We came to this decision after a careful review of our options, realizing a number of good people would be affected.”

The Denver Post reported first reported of the recent reduction in force, noting that another 1,800  EchoStar employees were moving to corporate cousin Dish Network following an early announced asset transfer.

That transaction, completed today, includes a transfer of certain DBS assets, including a 10% stake in Sling TV from EchoStar and control of EchoStar’s set-top box business.

RELATED: Dish to Consolidate EchoStar DBS Assets

The Post also said EchoStar confirmed that it terminated two office leases last year – one near its Denver area headquarters, and a sublease in Atlanta.

Dish and EchoStar have not confirmed an earlier report, corroborated by industry sources, that they are ceasing the manufacturing of standalone Slingboxes, the iconic place-shifting device whose functions are now integrated in some Dish set-top/receivers and has been obviated in part by the emergence of video apps that run on mobile and TV-connected devices. EchoStar recently shut down “Sage By Hughes,” a do-it-yourself home security/automation product.

RELATED: Sling Media Halts Slingbox Manufacturing: Report

The asset swap comes years after the company split itself into Dish Network (for the pay TV business) and the EchoStar unit, which included the set-top and equipment business.

Dish CEO Charlie Ergen discussed the logic of the original split during the company’s Q4 earnings call last month.

“We had a theory on where we thought the market was going to go,” he said. “Some of those theories didn't turn out to be exactly right.”

One aim was to have EchoStar, as a separate company, sell set-tops to cable operators and into other industries.

That product suite, marketed under the “Aria” brand, failed to gain much traction, and EchoStar eventually scrapped the idea of selling boxes and user interfaces to cable operators.

RELATED: EchoStar Shutting Down U.S. Cable Set-Top Unit