Moody's: DISH Network unchanged

Moody's Investors Service said DISH Network Corp.'s (Ba3/stable) loss of its satellite video agreement with CenturyLink, Inc. has negative credit implications for DISH.

CenturyLink replaced DISH with DirecTV. The agency said this development is highly likely to mean that, upon the completion of the expected merger that is pending between CenturyLink and Qwest Communications International Inc., DirecTV will be the ongoing bundled video provider for the combined entity.

The negative implication doesn't impact DISH's current credit ratings given the strength of current credit metrics and the company's balance sheet relative to its Ba3 corporate family rating, Moody's said, but it will likely constrain the company's ratings from improving to the high Ba or investment-grade levels in the future without further debt and leverage improvement.

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