Dish, DEs Agree to Further Fixes to Address De Facto Control Woes; Chairman Meets Pai

Dish Network and designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless further amended their business arrangements to try to fix problematic Dish de facto control issues, the satellite-TV company said in an SEC filing Friday. The amendments come atop other amendments made in April (see 1804040004). Dish said the latest amended Northstar and SNR agreements give the designated entities, among other things, the right to sell their right in their spectrum without consent of a Dish subsidiary anytime after Oct. 27, 2020 -- five years earlier than the previous agreements -- and to remove Dish subsidiaries' rights of first refusal with respect to sale of any AWS-3 licenses. Separately, the MVPD disclosed in an FCC filing earlier that day that representatives, including Chairman Charlie Ergen, had meetings with Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on its wireless and IoT network plans. The company "has been negotiating definitive master supply agreements for" radios, chipsets and other things, it said in docket 17-183.