I'm new to Dish as well and as I understand it, the hold up has something to do with a lawsuit between Dish and Fox Networks regarding FoxNews and the programming tier it appears on. I think that lawsuit has been resolved, but bad blood remains.
As a result, other Fox channels and HD channel upgrades (like Speed and FoxBusiness) are not likely to be online anytime soon. That's according to what I've found on this and other satellite forums...