EchoStar Communications Corp. will be raising the rates subscribers pay for its Dish Network direct-to-home satellite television service, according to a Jan. 5 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. According to the report, subscribers will be paying $2 to $4 a month more for satellite television beginning next month, about a 4.3 percent rate hike. An EchoStar spokesman was quoted in the article as saying programming costs have increased by about 7 percent throughout the last year. It is the fifth rate hike in the past five years for EchoStar.