The US satellite service provider, DISH Network, will start accepting bitcoin this year.
New technological innovations have changed the television industry in the last years. In order to survive, companies must adapt to the changes in the technological sector so they can attract more customers.
Thus, the US satellite service provider, DISH Network, announced on Thursday that it would start accepting bitcoin this year. The company will become the largest firm to accept the virtual money.
DISH Network is the largest content providers in the US with over 14 million subscribers.
The company projects to begin accepting the digital currency in the third quarter of 2014. Still, the exact date is unknown.
In 2013, DISH Network generated revenues of $13.9 billion. The workforce involves over 30,000 employees.
DISH executive vice president and chief operating officer, Bernie Han, said: “We always want to deliver choice and convenience for our customers and that includes the method they use to pay their bills.”
“Bitcoin is becoming a preferred way for some people to transact and we want to accommodate those individuals,” he added.
Han pointed out that the company intends to meet their customers need by providing additional payment option.
Coinbase will process all payment transactions for DISH Network, converting bitcoin to USD. The price of bitcoin has fluctuated in the past 18 months.
Besides making payment process easy for customers, Coinbase will allow DISH Network to receive a credit “at an attractive cost for DISH.”
“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,” Han said.
Bitcoin payments will be available for DISH Network users on mydish.com in the third quarter of 2014.
The decision to accept bitcoin will attract more media attention to the currency and will lend credibility to bitcoin between those consumers, who have been skeptical about the virtual currency.
Today, mainstream companies started to realize that bitcoin is viable method of payment. Besides benefits of accepting bitcoin, there are also some risks.
“We are not in business to tell our customers what to do. We’re in business to make it easy for them to buy our products or services,” a business owner said in a recent interview.
While consumers will desire to make payments in bitcoin, the more firms will add the option. Although there are some negative forecasts, bitcoin will continue to exist.
Bloomberg has recently included bitcoin into its terminals. The Federal Election Committee has approved the digital currency for political donations. In addition, Yelp introduced a service that will provide information about restaurants that accept bitcoin.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.