For those who live in the US and have an interest in getting a satellite television system to deliver their entertainment and news programming to them will quickly discover that there are two big players in that industry. These two giants in the satellite dish field are DishNetwork and DirecTV and they have gotten to be so well-known that the names of the companies are almost interchangeable with the TV satellite service itself. Even though DishNetwork has held the leadership position in this industry for some time, the DirecTV dish company has been keeping things very competitive.

However, it should be noted that DishNetwork and DirecTV are not the only contenders in this highly competitive field, which is growing and expanding at a rapid pace and is constantly luring customers to dish network satellite services and away from cable companies. One of the other home dish network service providers is the Sky Angel system, which is gaining market share among consumers who want to have a broader selection of family-friendly programming and who do not want much of the mainstream entertainment to be brought into their homes.

Both the DishNetwork company and the DirecTV dish company are engaged in offering dish network specials on an almost continuous basis as they compete head to head to gain new customers. Having all of this direct competition in the industry is actually great for customers, as they become the true winners in the battle between these behemoths.

Many times, both DishNetwork and DirecTV will offer special promotions and the new customers often end up receiving free dish services for a month, free satellite dish equipment, a free dish network satellite receiver, and sometimes even special HDTV programming prices during a trial period. When setting up a new home dish service with these companies there is also the potential to receive special expanded programming packages at a lower price, or one to three months of premium programming channels.

This is wonderful for customers who are just getting familiar with all that satellite TV services have to offer, as they can sample the full programming options during this time without having to pay extra. At the same time, the satellite television companies know that by offering these dish network deals on programming, the consumers often get “hooked” on the additional channels and then are willing to pay for an upgraded programming package or will subscribe to the premium channels.

Even though DishNetwork has been in the lead position in the US for many years, the DirecTV network is gaining ground in the Latin American market. DirecTV is made up of four different operational units, which include the DirecTV Latin America unit, the PanAmSat unit, the Hughes Network Systems unit (known as HNS), in addition to the DirecTV US unit.

There are now more than 12 million DirecTV dish network customers throughout the 50 states and there are approximately 1.5 million DirecTV customers located in the various countries of Latin America. In addition, through their fleet of satellites operated under their PanAmSat division, they operate a total of 25 satellites that continuously circle the earth and could handle an impressive 98% of all satellite communications currently in demand throughout the world.