Hoping to begin day-and-date film release trials with movie studios, much like cable operators, EchoStar Communications is looking at broadcast assets as acquisition targets, Adweek reports.

One broadcasting firm of particular interest to EchoStar is Ion Media Networks. Executives remain evasive but CEO Cal Vogel divulged, "Broadcast assets are similar to what we do today. We find that category attractive."

The company is expected to continue expanding movie titles available through its on-demand service through the EchoStar hard drives, which are ever-increasing in size.

EchoStar also reported a first-quarter profit hike of 6.7 percent to $157 million. Revenue rose to $2.64 billion, a 15 percent increase. The spike was driven by a 35 percent increase in subscribers from last year, including 310,000 new subscribers within the last period.