New York Times -"EchoStar Faces a Big Challenge"

[Scott Greczkowski]

(The Below article is an excerpt from the New York Times, you can read the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/business/11BIRD.html?th The New York Times site requires FREE registration in order to read the article)

While Rupert Murdoch and General Motors executives worked out the News Corporation's deal for control of DirecTV, Charles W. Ergen, the chairman of EchoStar, the nation's No. 2 satellite-television company, spent most of this week south of the border.

Mr. Ergen was at an undisclosed Mexican location for a previously scheduled conference with senior EchoStar executives and sales agents, said two people close to the company. While the meetings were meant to be all business, Mr. Ergen may have been well advised to take a few minutes to relax in the sun.

That is because it may be his last vacation for some time.

Now that Mr. Murdoch has finally made the deal he has been anticipating for at least a decade — the deal that brings the News Corporation into the United States satellite television market — EchoStar will be hard put to continue to outperform DirecTV the way it has for the last 18 months. As the cable television industry finally begins to deliver on the promise of its long-lamented digital upgrades and as DirecTV, the nation's No. 1 satellite television carrier, finally appears to be falling into the hands of aggressive and capable media operators, EchoStar and its mercurial chairman appear to face their biggest challenges in years.

Marc Lumpkin, an EchoStar spokesman, said yesterday afternoon that he did not know where Mr. Ergen was. Mr. Lumpkin said that the rest of EchoStar's senior executives were traveling and that neither he nor any other executive could discuss the DirecTV deal or EchoStar's future.

Read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/business/11BIRD.html?th (Free Registration Required)

[DCSholtis]

Found this ESPECIALLY interesting...Excerpt from same NY Times article.
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Now, Mr. Murdoch will probably try to invade EchoStar's base of dealers with lucrative promotions and marketing tie-ins. As an old-line newspaper mogul and veteran of many British newspaper battles, Mr. Murdoch is well aware of the importance of retail distribution for his products. A move by Mr. Murdoch against EchoStar's retail base could prompt a long price war that could benefit consumers even as it undermines the companies themselves.

A price war between the News Corporation and EchoStar, however, could end up lasting far longer than normal. That is because while both companies are public, each is under the sole financial control of its chairman — Mr. Murdoch at the News Corporation and Mr. Ergen at EchoStar. Because they cannot be fired, Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Ergen can each afford to be especially stubborn, and so this battle could end up an especially bitter one.

"There are just two things in Charlie's life," Mr. Scherman said. "His family and his company. There is no No. 3. Anyone who thinks he would turn his company over to someone else, especially now, is delusional."

[Yanks]

Please sell your company Charlie so I can get my YES.

[Allen Noland]

Rant Mode on...

Much to the dismay of most people in NY, there are people in the country that DON"T care about the Yankees. I hope someday that dishnetwork customers that want to subscribe to YES can get it on Dish, but Please Please Please don't expect non-Yankee fans to pay for that channel. Why don't you direct your complaints to the Yankees and get them to change the distribution pricing.

Rant Mode Off...

[Marcus S]

Both E* and Cablevision have been in talks with YES. This issue is that neither E* or Cablevision want to raise rates to add this or other sports channels but have offered to carry it as a Premium, YES has said NO. However as Sports Channels contracts expire I expect we will see more and more get moved to premium tiers and most sports enthusiasts don't seem to have a problem with that and for an unusual reason, many of the free sports channels suffer from signficant black outs while premium subs are blacked out less often.

[Jacob S]

I still think a merger retry is possible in the future when the 3rd and 4th satellite operator comes in at 61.5 and 105.5 and both of them may make a good combination together.

They may be too smart to allow themselves to kill each others company by slashing prices to get nowhere but down.

[gcutler]

Anyone know what was Murdoch's history of DBS management ourside of the US. Many of the things implied require that Murdoch spend more money. He may not want to spend even more money and may be happy with the share he has (and it's not like you hear about many people jumping from D*to E lately). But his actions around the world may give a hint on if he is happy with the D* stake or does he want it all???

[Sherlock]

Murdoch has a history of not wanting to compete in the SatTV space. He likes to be the monopoly. There were multiple articles about the subject when Rupe was working behind the scenes to block the DISH/GMH merger due to satellite "monopoly" reasons.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Yanks
Please sell your company Charlie so I can get my YES.

Want YES? Get D* or cable.