This page contains speculation about what Dish Network COULD do with their satellites.
What if: Dish Network turned transponder 9 at 119° into a ConUS beam?
Above are the five spotbeams that are available on transponder 9 of Echostar 7 at 119°. One of those spot beams was designed to cover Mexico City. Two more are pointed to Alaska and Hawaii. The remaining two point (generally) at Utah and Mississippi.
Currently those spot beams carry the following:
9s1: TV Japan (for Hawaii) and Hawaii locals
9s2: Anchorage AK locals (and Alaska Public Affairs channel)
The other three beams are vacant ... TP9 at 119° is "wasted space" to most in the US.
What if? Dish Network moved the Alaska and Hawaii content to new spotbeams on 110°?
Main problem - Receiving 110° is not trivial in Alaska and Hawaii, requiring a second dish. This move would free up valuable space for national channels on 119°, but only at a high cost for Alaska and Hawaii subscribers.
What if: Dish Network reactivated the spots on Echostar 8?
Here are the spotbeam maps for Echostar 8 spotbeams that do not conflict with Echostar 10:
Dish Network could discontinue Conus operation on any of these four transponders (spotbeams on transponder 4 conflict with new spotbeams on Echostar 10) and reactivate the spots shown. This would provide more spotbeam space for the specific areas covered, but would reduce the overall ConUS capacity of 110°. In addition ... Echostar 8 is currently operating 19 ConUS transponders. The power load would have to be calculated in order to support four or five spotbeams instead of one ConUS transponder. (Back when all 26 spots on E8 were active E8 shared it's ConUS load with E6 which, due to design, can no longer assist at 110°.)
This is another issue of limited benefit at a great cost.
What if: Dish Network turned other transponders at 119° into a ConUS beams?
Here are the spotbeam maps for Echostar 7. The primary problem with this change would be finding a new place for the local channels that are hosted on this satellite. The cities listed have some or all of their local channels on the spots shown.
1s3 Eugene OR, 3s3 Seattle WA
1s5 and 3s5 Los Angeles
1s13 Johnstown-Altoona PA, Scranton PA, NY City NY
3s13 Hartford CT, Washington DC
1s15 and 3s15 Miami FL
1s9 and 3s9 (Available - Oklahoma/Kansas area)
5s4 Reno NV
7s4 San Fransisco CA [HD]
5s6 Phoenix AZ
7s6 Phoenix AZ, Tuscon AZ
5s10 Houston TX, Waco TX
7s10 Houston TX, Austin TX
5s11 Champaign IL, Terre Haute IN, Milwaukee WI
7s11 South Bend IN, Fort Wayne IN, Terre Haute IN
5s14 Greensville SC
7s14 Columbia SC, Savannah GA