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Represents the number of subscribers of pay tv services.

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Wireless Projects Future Expenditures

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Amount of write-down of assets recognized in the income statement. Includes, but is not limited to, losses from tangible assets, intangible assets and goodwill.

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Face amount or stated value per share of common stock.

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Carrying amount (original costs adjusted for previously recognized amortization and impairment) as of the balance sheet date for the capitalized costs to acquire rights under a license arrangement (for example, to sell specified products in a specified territory) having an indefinite period of benefit.

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Portion of equity (net assets) in a variable interest entity (VIE) not attributable, directly or indirectly, to the parent entity. That is, this is the portion of equity in a VIE that is attributable to the noncontrolling interest (previously referred to as minority interest).

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Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

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The cash outflow to acquire asset without physical form usually arising from contractual or other legal rights, excluding goodwill.

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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Ratio applied to the conversion of stock split, for example but not limited to, one share converted to two or two shares converted to one.

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Organization and Business Activities (Details) $ / shares in Units, item in Thousands, $ in Thousands		3 Months Ended	147 Months Ended
	Sep. 10, 2019	Mar. 31, 2020 USD ($) item segment $ / shares shares	Mar. 31, 2020 USD ($) item $ / shares	Dec. 31, 2019 USD ($) $ / shares	May 19, 2019 $ / shares
Spectrum Investments
Number of primary operating business units \| segment		2
Number of Pay-TV subscribers \| item		11,323	11,323
Common stock par value (in dollars per share) \| $ / shares		$ 86.08	$ 86.08
Stockholders' Equity Note, Stock Split, Conversion Ratio	0.23523769
Payment to acquire certain wireless licenses and related assets			$ 21,000,000
FCC authorizations		$ 26,008,056	26,008,056	$ 25,779,503
Total debt and equity investments in subsidiaries		10,000,000	10,000,000
Impairment of long-lived assets		356,418
Network Development Future Expenditures		10,000,000
Capitalized interest on FCC authorizations [Member]
Spectrum Investments
FCC authorizations		$ 5,000,000	$ 5,000,000
Class A common stock
Spectrum Investments
Common stock par value (in dollars per share) \| $ / shares		$ 0.01	$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Number of additional shares \| shares		22,937,188
Class B common stock
Spectrum Investments
Common stock par value (in dollars per share) \| $ / shares		$ 0.01	$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Maximum
Spectrum Investments
Wireless Projects Future Expenditures		$ 500,000
Minimum
Spectrum Investments
Wireless Projects Future Expenditures		$ 250,000
Sling TV Holding L.L.C.
Spectrum Investments
Number of Pay-TV subscribers \| item		2,311	2,311
EchoStar \| Master Transaction Agreement \| Class A common stock
Spectrum Investments
Common stock par value (in dollars per share) \| $ / shares					$ 0.001
EchoStar \| Master Transaction Agreement \| Class B common stock
Spectrum Investments
Common stock par value (in dollars per share) \| $ / shares					0.001
Newco \| Master Transaction Agreement
Spectrum Investments
Common stock par value (in dollars per share) \| $ / shares					$ 0.001
Dish TV
Spectrum Investments
Number of Pay-TV subscribers \| item		9,012	9,012
Wireless
Spectrum Investments
Payment to acquire certain wireless licenses and related assets			$ 11,000,000
Northstar Spectrum And SNR Holdco
Spectrum Investments
Total debt and equity investments in subsidiaries		$ 10,000,000	$ 10,000,000