# DISH Expands In-Home Music Experience With Pandora



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

*DISH Expands In-Home Music Experience With Pandora*

ENGLEWOOD, CO -- (Marketwire) -- 04/19/12 -- DISH (NASDAQ: DISH), one of the nation's leading pay-TV providers, has introduced Pandora (NYSE: P), the leading personalized radio service, for the DISH Hopper™ Whole-Home HD DVR system. Pandora on the Hopper allows customers to easily search for their favorite artists or songs and create personalized radio stations that play only the music they love from the comfort of their homes.

DISH customers with a Hopper can login to their existing Pandora account, or create a new Pandora account, to stream their personalized radio stations through their television. Streaming Pandora on the Hopper requires an Internet connection.

"Pandora adds new dimension to the Hopper experience," said Vivek Khemka, vice president of product management at DISH. "This partnership is another example of how we are working to make Hopper the entertainment platform of choice for America's homes."

"We're thrilled that DISH is making Pandora available to their customers on a great new platform like the Hopper," said Ian Geller, vice president of Business Development at Pandora. "More than a third of all radio listening takes place in the home and Pandora delivered through the Hopper allows everyone in the family to easily access and enjoy music they love through their personalized radio stations."

DISH's Hopper features three satellite TV tuners and a two-terabyte hard drive that stores up to 2,000 hours of video. Accompanied by small, sleek Joey™ units, the Hopper enables customers to pause live TV in one room and continue watching in another room. DISH launched Hopper in March and it is available to both new and existing DISH customers.

In addition to Pandora, DISH's Hopper features apps that give viewers real-time access to Facebook, Twitter and photo sharing, as well as games, news, weather, sports and stock quotes.

More information about DISH's Hopper is available at www.dish.com/hopper.

_About DISH
_DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), through its subsidiary DISH Network L.L.C., provides more than 13.967 million satellite TV customers, as of Dec. 31, 2011, with the highest quality programming and technology with the most choices at the best value, including HD Free for Life. Subscribers enjoy the largest high definition line-up with more than 200 national HD channels, the most international channels, and award-winning HD and DVR technology. DISH Network's subsidiary, Blockbuster L.L.C., delivers family entertainment to millions of customers around the world. DISH Network Corporation is a Fortune 200 company. Visit www.dish.com.

_About Pandora
_Pandora gives people music they love anytime, anywhere, through connected devices. (OK, we've added comedy as well so we're also up for playing some jokes you'll love.) Personalized stations launch instantly with the input of a single "seed" -- a favorite artist, song or genre. The Music Genome Project®, a deeply detailed, hand-built musical taxonomy, powers Pandora's personalization -- using musicological "DNA" and constant listener feedback to craft personalized stations from a growing collection of hundreds of thousands of recordings. Tens of millions of people in the United States turn on Pandora to hear music they love. ​


----------



## teacher1066 (Mar 27, 2007)

How about delivering an OTA module instead of this type of esoteric development!


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

The "esoteric" development bring them money, but OTA will not.


----------



## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

Esoteric? Music is esoteric?


----------



## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

I really like Pandora. Color me esoteric.


----------



## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

Marlin Guy said:


> I really like Pandora. Color me esoteric.


Is that in a 64 pack of Crayolas????? :grin:

I really like Pandora as well, and while I would like to see OTA more than this I can understand this was probably an easier integration project as it's not external hardware dependent.


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

But wait ... that's not all - also added to the Hopper (per DISH):

1. The addition of a Facebook app

2. The expansion of user recording space on the hard drive. We have expanded it from 500 GB to 1 TB. So customers can now record up to 500 hours of HD content and 1,000 hours of SD content. At launch it was 250 hours of HD content and 500 hours of SD content. 

Twice as much user space is twice as nice. 

(I am assuming the user space adjustment will happen with the next release. At the moment I have Pandora and Facebook on my hopper, but only 500 GB "Total Space".)


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I suspect (based of 922's HDD partitioning) the 500 GB is just quota's setting. No separate partition for core or user.


----------



## dunkonu23 (Sep 11, 2006)

Hey, it works great here.  I use Pandora all the time on vacation. It's pretty cool it's on the Hopper!

Scott


----------



## brunnegd (Apr 8, 2007)

Yes, I like Pandora, on my computer and phone. But on the TV, we already have Sirius/XM and the DISH music channels. Adding Pandora to Hopper, not the legacy boxes, appears to be a way to market the Hopper, maybe get current customers to upgrade.
I looked at the Hopper manuals, could not see a good reason to switch from my 622/625 sets I now have.


----------



## olguy (Jan 9, 2006)

But Dish didn't put the apps on the Joeys. I don't need them on anything else. My family room has 4 devices already that have Pandora plus 1 of those has Slacker which I prefer. And Facebook on my big screen? No thanks.


----------



## dunkonu23 (Sep 11, 2006)

I use Pandora to listen to the types of music I like, so it fits in well. I have many custom stations that I set up prior and they're all there with Dish. Sure, we have all the other music channels, but they're pretty much random programming--you get genre and little else. In Pandora, I pick a band... say Dream Theater, I can like or dislike other artists. Right now, my Dream Theater station plays mostly Dream Theater. Same with my Tool station, my Metallica station and so on. Sure, other artists pop up, but can dislike them and never hear from them again or like them and add to the rotation. I just like Pandora. 

Scott


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Pandora is a good addition, although I agree that putting it on the Joeys would make it a better addition. I first tried Pandora last fall on my smart phone and enjoyed being able to pick an artist and hear that artist and related artist's songs.

I felt betrayed as Christmas approached when the Pandora service started feeding me Christmas music from any artist regardless of the settings. If I wanted Christmas music I would have selected a Christmas music channel! I ended up not listening to Pandora because of this issue. (If it was Christmas music by the same artists I would normally hear based on my channel selections it might have been tolerated - but it was just as bad as the radio stations I was trying to avoid by using Pandora. Breaking format to play generic music from artists that station would normally not touch.)

I've run Pandora on my Hopper for a few hours and found it better than Sirius/XM or DishCD channels. Plus it does not consume a tuner, so something can record or play in another room while I'm listening to music.

As far as the other apps ... I'm not on Facebook and have not become addicted to Twitter (previously available). If Twitter ran at the same time as TV it might be a way to add popups of tweets to you over your TV viewing. The Photo Sharing app for Flickr/Picasa is an odd choice as well. A YouTube app would be appreciated as there are times I'd like to watch YouTube on the bigger tube without additional equipment or work.

But Picassa is a good add.


----------



## dunkonu23 (Sep 11, 2006)

+1 for Youtube! I'd love to be able to watch RC Helicopter event coverage on my TV without running an HDMI cable to my computer, iPhone/iPad. 

Scott


----------



## normang (Nov 14, 2002)

dunkonu23 said:


> +1 for Youtube! I'd love to be able to watch RC Helicopter event coverage on my TV without running an HDMI cable to my computer, iPhone/iPad.
> 
> Scott


Get an Apple TV and use Airplay, much easier..


----------



## jborchel (Oct 7, 2005)

Is Pandora free on the hopper or a monthly chg? If so, how much?


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

jborchel said:


> Is Pandora free on the hopper or a monthly chg? If so, how much?


It is free.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Its using included into your monthly fee.


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

P Smith said:


> Its using included into your monthly fee.


Which did not increase with the addition of the Pandora service. 

The entry level of Pandora is a free service via web browser or phone app. The DISH version extends your service to the Hopper receiver at no additional cost.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

The point is - it's not free [lunch], like you could use your old unsubbed receiver with the feature. That would be free. 
I recall someone using 811 for OTA stations for free. That's free.


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

You're right. You will be responsible for providing the DSL, cable modem and any other hardware and software necessary to use the Pandora Services. If one wants to be pointlessly anal about it they could say the electricity required to power said devices is also not included.

Pandora does not charge for their entry level service (they make money through placing advertising between songs occasionally). DISH does not charge for the use of the Pandora app on the Hopper. DISH's charges relating to possession and use of a Hopper are unrelated to the app.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Good disclosure finally without be anal.


----------



## AZDude (Apr 22, 2012)

Love having Pandora, would be better if it was added to the Joeys. 

+1 for youtube on the hopper and joeys.


----------



## homeskillet (Feb 3, 2004)

Pandora is a nice add, now if we could get Slacker on more devices it would be better!


----------



## tuxworth (Jun 3, 2012)

Spotify would also be a nice addition.


----------

