Welcome to DISH, Texas.

Looks like they found a taker in Clark, Texas, who took EchoStar up on their offer to rename their humble town of fifty five homes and 125 people, DISH. Yes, that's DISH, TX. And in return the town's residents get ten years of free service for their humility and acquiescence to corporate branding — at an estimated net value of $4,500 per home. Congratulations! Though as long as the word's still out on all-you-can-eat Pay-Per-View we're not gonna be putting our respective places on the market. Hook that up — hoo boy — and we might all have to relocate.

[Via WashPost, thanks, Dave and Xer0]

[Dario @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Does that mean that I can move there and get free service??

[Ed @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I sure hope so...

[Chiablo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Hmm... I'm wondering if I can register a P.O. Box there and have dish give me free service because I am renting a 4"x5" box in Dish, TX.

[Aklemmer @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Does that mean TiVo will own the town as soon as they successfully win the Echostar litigation? :-)

[DJ @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

From the article I also read about this on Yahoo...

"The best part of the contract, Merritt said, is the free television will be extended to anyone who moves to Dish and any land that is later annexed by the town. The new town signs, designed and paid for by DISH Network, were a bonus"

[preston @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

You also have to take into account what this will do for their tourism.

[TVGenius @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Dish has to figure that extending the offer to anyone that moves is worth the cost... since when people are asked why they're moving there, they'll have to explain the whole story to a few dozen people...

[Alfredo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Damn, I was hoping it would be Chicago.

[Yup @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

And to think I almost moved to Cable, Wisconsin! Think of the money I'll save!

http://www.wistravel.com/cable.htm

[happy gilmore @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

these people better pay their taxes up-front on the $4,500 gift that they're getting.

[mat @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Come on Charlie, can't Echostar come up with new marketing ideas, instead of taking cues from Half.com?

[Jon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Amazing. Half.com did this 9 years ago, renaming a town to Half, Oregon. How unoriginal. Read about Half.com's name switch here: http://www.buzzmarketing.com/inquirer.html

[Steve @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

This gag was done before. If you read an obituary of TV host/producer Ralph Edwards you will find that Little Hot Springs, NM changed it's name to Truth or Consequences, MN. in 1950. All they got was Edwards doing a remote broadcast from the town.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/16/obit.edwards.ap/index.html

[epp_b @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

["these people better pay their taxes up-front on the $4,500 gift that they're getting."]

Ya gotta love how "gifts" in the US are the kind that just keep on taking.

[Galley @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Thanks for the link #12. I always wondered about Truth or Consequences, NM.

[acidreflux @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Maybe one day people will pass it as tourist attraction, like they do where dinasour fossils have been found.

"Now kids, look at the bowls people used to put on their house."

[Google Nazi @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I remember the engadget article about this a few months ago. I'm surprized a town went for it. Actually, I would do it in a heartbeat because i don't give a crap what the town name is.

Now let's wait and see when L.A., New York, Chicago, and Miami starts to change their name to Dish Dish Dish Dish.

[Sam @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Left out is the fact that there are, I mean "were", sorry, two cities in Texas named "Clark" so that one or the other was going to have to change its name sooner or later. This Clark was the smaller one, so it was probably the one that had to change. So given that they would either have had to pay for it themselves and rename the place "Bush" or something, or get a corporate sponsor, it looks like they were the smart ones in getting someone else to pay for it and give them 10 years of free TV to boot.

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Seriously, I foresee that soon Google will make an offer to a city in the U.S. to rename itself, perhaps offering it free wireless internet.