SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Moody’s Investors Service on Monday raised several ratings for Dish Network Corp., citing factors such as the satellite TV provider’s generation of free cash flow and its better-than-expected settlement of litigation with TiVo Inc. The ratings service holds a “Stable” rating outlook for Dish.
Moody’s upgraded Dish’s corporate family rating to “Ba2” from “Ba3,” and its probability of default rating to “Ba1” from “Ba2.” The ratings service also increased Dish’s debt instrument ratings to “Ba2” from “Ba3.” All the ratings are below investment grade.
Earlier this year, Dish and EchoStar ? a Dish spin-off that makes set-top boxes ? recently settled a long-running patent lawsuit with TiVo Inc. over digital video recorder technology, agreeing to pay TiVo $500 million as part of the settlement. Moody’s said the terms of the deal were “much better” than expected.
Moody’s also pointed out that Dish has lost fewer subscribers than expected even though it has lost big telecommunications company partnerships to competitor DirecTV.
