Dish could still provide for some 4K content on the sats, but not at the level it does for HD channels for some time, and the internet is a great interim solution and Dish's only competition in rural areas, for the most part, is DircTV, and even they aren't going to be able to provide for more than just a few 4K channels, so both sat companies are in the same boat there.
As to DirecTV's bonding of who transponders for 4K: This is a solution demonstrated earlier this year by the commercial sat companies who provide transmission services for cable TV channels and other clients (experiments and demonstrations still ongoing). The bonding of two transponders is about the ONLY way DBS (and most of the commercial sats) can provide 4K today because DBS (and the commercial video sat services) are still using the H.264 and neither Dish's DBS Ku nor DirecTV's Ka transponders provide enough bandwidth for 4K using the H.264 standard using a single transponder. So, for today, bonding two transponders is the only way Dish and DirecTV can send 4K channels to their customers, assuming they want to maintain full or sufficient (so that it still look like better than HD) 4K resolution and bit rate to the customer. It is a solution that does NOT ADD any bandwidth, and, in fact, will require MORE compression on all the other channels that would have to be moved from the 2 bonded transponders. It was also demonstrated on non-US satellites that transponders with sufficient bandwidth can transmit 4K using just that one transponder, but that is NOT the real world for most satellites in the US currently used to send video to the MVPD's NOR for Sat DBS subscribers.
The real solution is the coming FINAL spec. for H.265. At least the commercial sat companies know they HAVE to change over, and plan on doing so because it would be far more efficient than bonding two transponders for delivery to the MVPD's, and MVPD's who want to RECEIVE 4K channels from commercial sats (there is also the fiber optic option) will also upgrade to H.265 so they can RECEIVE those channels. That is relatively CHEAP (but still a fair cost) for the commercial end of it and for all the MVPD's to change out for RECEIVING ONLY. However, when DBS attempts to turn-around that 4K channel to their DBS customers, they are STUCK with H.264's limitations and are going to LOSE bandwidth doing it. It is far more expensive for Dish and DirecTV to go through another box change-out for when 4K takes off because we already know from MPEG that it will require faster chips and additional hardware that is NOT in ANY MVPD box today. H.265 is pretty more complex than H.264 and really depends upon serious processing power.
Charlie must be having heartburn knowing he is may have to go though another change-out, even if it is years away. But this is why in the short-term, the internet may be the preferred method for Dish to deliver 4K content while 4K takes time to reach the tipping point.
