Property and Equipment (Tables)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Schedule of property and equipment

Property and equipment consisted of the following (amounts in thousands):

	Depreciable Life In Years	As of
		June 30, 2019			December 31, 2018
Land	—	$	33,600		$	33,606
Buildings and improvements	1 to 40	174,260			174,227
Furniture, fixtures, equipment and other	1 to 12	830,040			812,566
Customer premises equipment	2 to 4	1,270,959			1,159,977
Satellites - owned	2 to 15	2,816,628			2,816,628
Satellites - acquired under finance leases	10 to 15	1,052,592			1,051,110
Construction in progress	—	368,345			307,026
Total property and equipment		6,546,424			6,355,140
Accumulated depreciation		(3,216,630		)	(2,940,232		)
Property and equipment, net		$	3,329,794		$	3,414,908

Depreciation expense associated with our property and equipment consisted of the following (amounts in thousands):

	For the three months ended June 30,				For the six months ended June 30,
	2019		2018		2019		2018
Buildings and improvements	$	3,882	$	4,376	$	7,369	$	6,085
Furniture, fixtures, equipment and other	19,955		19,517		40,605		41,213
Customer premises equipment	47,275		42,875		93,467		86,323
Satellites	73,404		71,042		146,896		139,203
Total depreciation expense	$	144,516	$	137,810	$	288,337	$	272,824

Schedule of construction in progress

Construction in progress consisted of the following (amounts in thousands):

	As of
	June 30, 2019		December 31, 2018
Progress amounts for satellite construction	$	332,772	$	277,583
Satellite related equipment	18,904		13,001
Other	16,669		16,442
Construction in progress	$	368,345	$	307,026