The only reason why Dish was so successful in the early days was due to their 20,000 independent retailers pushing their product with the lies of getting lifetime residuals on every customer we signed up.
What really happened was the retailers are the ones who initially jump started Dish Network and was responsible for the tremendous growth in sales from 1996 to around 2002.
Once Dish got big enough, they put in place their own direct sales channel, and the retailers where slowly pushed aside for the next 10-16 years.
When Directv launched, it was all about being in the big box stores like Rat Shack, Worst Buy, Wally World and Circus City. There really wasn’t such a thing as being an independent dealer.