• by Wayne Friedman , November 18, 2005

Some marketing plans never die--and naming your town after a TV program or TV distributor is still good business.

Clark, Texas, a town of 55 homes, has agreed to rename itself Dish, Texas, after the satellite distributor EchoStar's Dish Network--in order to get free satellite service for its 4500 residents for the next ten years.

Back in August of this year, EchoStar, with about 11 million customers, launched a town-naming contest. EchoStar is in a constant battle with larger rival DirecTV, which has about 14.5 million customers. Both companies are also competing with cable operators.

This isn't just one isolated incident. Other small towns--especially some financially troubled municipalities--are looking into selling name rights. This follows activity by sports stadiums--typically owned by cities--which have increasingly done naming deals over the last two decades.

In 2000, Halfway, Ore. became Half.com for a year in an agreement that gave $100,000 to the town, as well as a new computer lab in the school. The town had called itself "Welcome to Half.com, the World's First Dot-com City." The town is back to calling itself Halfway.

In the 1950s, Hot Springs, N.M. was renamed Truth or Consequences, N.M., after a popular quiz show.