Washington, D.C. (May 14, 2008) -- Does everyone at Dish Network have a long nose today?

The satcaster issued a press release on Monday saying it would add 22 High-Definition channels this week. The announcement appeared to put Dish on par with high-def programming leader DIRECTV, which carries 95 national HD channels.

And if you weren't clear about that, Dish underscored the point in the release by including this quote from Eric Sahl, the company's senior vice president of programming:

"We are excited to extend our competitiveness in HD by enhancing our already comprehensive HD lineup with these 22 channels, bringing our total HD lineup to over 95 channels," Sahl said.


Is this Pinocchio, or a Dish Network executive?

Problem is -- at the very moment when the press release was issued -- Dish Network was preparing to remove 15 Voom HD channels from its high-def lineup, starting Monday night.

And, by Tuesday night, all 15 Voom HD channels were gone, leaving Dish Network with around 80 national HD channels. (The satcaster needed to remove the Voom channels to make room for the 22 new high-def channels

That's right. Despite knowing that it would only have 95 national HD channels for, oh, about eight hours, Dish Network allowed the media -- and consumers -- to think it now had as many high-def channels as DIRECTV.

"Dish Network said it has launched today 22 additional national high-definition channels for its direct-to-home satellite service. The company said it now has 95 national HD channels," read the lead paragraph at Twice.com.

CNET.com's headline read: "With 22-channel launch, Dish approaches DIRECTV's HD channel count."

By saying it had 95 HD channels -- even though it knew it would not have 95 HD channels later that day -- Dish allowed millions of people to think its high-def lineup was just as good as DIRECTV's high-def lineup.

And if the publications that wrote those stories on Monday never bothered to update them with the Voom news, well, even better for Dish's sagging subscription efforts, huh? (Dish never issued a press release announcing the departure of the Voom channels.)

From company CEO Charlie Ergen on down, Dish Network should be ashamed today. If not a boldfaced lie, Monday's press release was clearly an attempt to fool the public into thinking Dish was something it's not.

Such behavior can only make this reporter wonder if this was a one-time goof-up or something the company does all the time.

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