Charlie Ergen, the founder and billionaire owner of US pay-TV broadcaster Dish Network, has talked for a couple of years about the “inevitability” of merging with arch-rival DirecTV. Both are losing subscribers at a worrying rate, and common sense suggests that a merger is the only route to saving cash, exploiting synergies and reducing the […]
Pay-TV operator DISH Network has suffered a major fall in subscribers according to its Q1 financials. Dish TV and its OTT sister service Sling TV, lost an overall 552,000 subscribers during the first quarter of the year. The same period in 2022 saw losses of 462,000 net subscribers (and 268,000 in Q4/2022). The Charlie Ergen-backed […]
Barely two weeks ago on March 10th, Charlie Ergen’s DBS DISH Network lost a Utah jury verdict on a patent lawsuit with plaintiff ClearPlay. The verdict saw the Court award ClearPlay $469 million (€434m) in compensation. The action alleged that DISH’s ‘AutoHop/Hopper’ functions used ClearPlay’s patented skipping feature. ClearPlay’s technology allowed users to skip what […]
Charlie Ergen, co-founder of Dish and EchoStar, has something of a reputation as a poker player. Indeed, he was allegedly once banned from a casino at Lake Tahoe many years ago. A report from Tim Farrar of TMF Associates focuses on a filing by Globalstar which has notified the market that it had entered into […]
Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar has moved in regard to its coverage of the planet with S-band frequencies. EchoStar already has European coverage with its EchoStar Mobile Ltd under a licence from the EU (although due to expire in 2027). EchoStar has now dramatically expanded that coverage with a commitment to launch 28 satellites with Astro Digital […]
The US is continuing to see a steady evaporation of satellite TV subscribers. DirecTV, owned by AT&T, has lost a worrying 47 per cent of its subscribers since it was acquired by AT&T in 2015. Charlie Ergen’s DISH Network is in a similar situation and in an SEC filing on January 17th admitted that it […]
Charlie Ergen, founder and chairman of DISH Network, speaking to analysts following the company’s Q3 earnings call, stated that the much-discussed merger between the US satellite pay-TV operators was getting closer. He told analysts that merger discussions ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections were difficult. “You’re hesitant to be a political football for somebody to […]
Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman of DISH Network and EchoStar, also controls CONX, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company. Ergen now wants to combine CONX with Dish’s retail cellular operation, Boost Mobile. CONX, in a statement, says it will hold a special meeting of shareholders on October 31st to vote on the plan and in particular […]
DirecTV is arguing that rival Dish Network’s planned 5G signals will interfere with its DTH signals over North America. Dish Network, backed by Charlie Ergen, has invested heavily in winning licences for 5G terrestrial cellular networks in the US. DirecTV has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that Dish Network’s mobile 5G signals “would cause […]
Terrestrial 5G telephony in the US wants to use the 12.2-12.7 GHz wireless band. The problem is that satellite operators also use the same frequencies. OneWeb, a would-be satellite constellation, in a letter to the Federal communications Commission (FCC) on July 11th argued that the FCC should reject Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network plans to use […]