 , the company provided services to 13.7 million television and 580,000 broadband subscribers.DISH Network officially began operations on March 4, 1996, as a service of EchoStar.EchoStar was formed in 1980 by its chairman and chief executive officer, Charlie Ergen along with colleagues Candy Ergen and Jim DeFranco, as a distributor of C-band satellite television systems.