In March we discussed how Dish Network was sued for violating the Federal Do Not Call list by the Federal government and four States (California, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina), At the time, Dish proclaimed that an independent audit revealed no violations, while heavily inferring that any violations may have been the fault of a reseller. This week Dish Network decided to settle, agreeing to pay $5.99 million to 46 different states for the company's marketing practices. The settlement resolves the states’ allegations that DISH Network:

•Refused to accept responsibility for the misconduct of its third-party retailers and installers;
•Made telemarketing calls to consumers in violation of No Call laws;
•Failed to disclose the complete terms and conditions of their customer agreements, including the availability of rebates, credits and free offers;
•Did not disclose that purchased or leased equipment was previously used and/or refurbished;
•Made reference to competitors’ price offers when the goods or services being compared were substantially different; and,
•Charged customer credit cards and debited bank accounts without providing adequate notice and obtaining appropriate authorization.

Back in 2003, Dish Network faced similar complaints by Colorado and 12 other states.

After Echostar was sued in 2004, a jury in 2006 ruled that Dish DVRs infringed upon a TiVo patent, and forced the company to pay TiVo $73.9 million in damages -- a ruling that was upheld in federal appeals court in January of 2008. Later on in 2008, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case -- essentially handing a victory to TiVo. Ultimately Echostar implemented a workaround, but a federal judge in Texas has awarded TiVo an additional $103 million in damages plus interest after finding that Echostar violated an injunction and continued to violate patents after previous rulings. Echostar and Dish Network say they're going to appeal the ruling, and have already paid TiVo $105 million in damages.

While DirecTV just posted their best subscriber gains in four years (460,000 new subscribers), rival Dish Network this morning announced they lost 94,000 subscribers during the first quarter. Still, net income rose to $313 million from $259 million one year ago, with total revenue reaching $2.91 billion -- up 2.1% compared with $2.84 billion a year earlier. The loss of AT&T as a resale partner hurt Dish, but the carrier was already struggling to stay competitive with telcoTV, cable, and DirecTV promotions.

Dish Network was already being hit pretty hard by the housing bubble, but AT&T's decision to cancel their partnership with the satellite company is only making things worse. Without AT&T's bundle promotions, or AT&T's previously much-ballyhooed DBS/DSL hybrid HomeZone unit taking on new customers, Dish is expecting already bad numbers to get worse. While most other TV operators managed slow but strong growth, Dish lost 102,000 subscribers last quarter, blaming "weaker economic conditions, aggressive subscriber acquisition and retention promotions by our competition, heavy marketing by our competition, the growth of fiber-based and Internet-based video providers, signal theft and other forms of fraud, and operational inefficiencies at Dish Network."

Dish Network today unveiled the SlingLoaded HD DuoDVR ViP 922, a new Dish DVR that comes with embedded Slingbox technology, allowing users to watch their home TV programming on the road via smartphone, PC or laptop. Somewhat less interestingly, Verizon announced new FiOSTV DVR functionality that lets users schedule DVR recordings via their Verizon phone. Not to be outdone, AT&T drops us a line to remind us that U-verse has included remote DVR features via Web since 2006 and cell since 2007 at no charge -- Verizon's remote programming requires you pay extra for their Home Media DVR service.