Dish Network Will Be The Largest Company To Accept Bitcoin

DISH the wholly owned subsidiary of DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) announced Thursday that it will begin to accept bitcoin as a payment method for its pay-TV subscribers starting in the third quarter this year.

This will not only make Dish the largest company to accept the "cryptocurrency," but also the first pay-TV provider.

Dish has said that it will use Coinbase to process all bitcoin transactions. This will allow Dish customers to use the bitcoin wallet of their choice, as well as exchange the bitcoin payments to U.S. dollars at the moment of the transaction through Coinbase's instant exchange feature.

Dish executive vice president and COO, Bernie Han, commented, "Bitcoin is becoming a preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommodate those individuals."

He continued, "As a bitcoin payment processor, Coinbase will help DISH make the payment experience easy for our customers and make it easy for DISH to receive immediate credit in dollars, at an attractive cost for DISH."

Coinbase co-founder, Fred Ehrsam said, "This is a large step forward in the growing momentum of customers paying companies in bitcoin for things we do every day, like watching premium TV.”

Shares of DISH Network closed Wednesday at $59.19.