Shares of EchoStar's spin-off effective January 1

NEW YORK (Reuters) - EchoStar Communications Corp (DISH.O) said on Friday that the distribution of shares of a new publicly traded entity that will hold its set-top box business and certain technology and satellite assets, EchoStar Holding Corp, will be effective on January 1, 2008.

EchoStar Holding Corp's Class A common stock will trade under the ticker symbol "SATS" on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, the satellite television operator said.

Each shareholder of EchoStar, which will change its name to DISH Network Corp after its separation from the new entity, will receive 0.2 of a share of the same class of common stock of EchoStar Holding Corp for each share they own as of December 27, the company said in a statement.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by Gary Hill)