Echostar Considers Spin Off

[FantasyChannel]

I'm a little confused. Isn't Echostar already divided up? They've made up quite a few subsidiaries. Wouldn't the new company just be another one? And if Charlie's the CEO what's the difference?

Echostar Technologies Corp.

Echostar Fixed Satellite Services Corp.

Echostar International Corp.

Dish Network Service LLC

Echosphere LLC

Echostar Satellite LLC

Echostar DBS Corp.

Can't think of the others.

 

[steve4810]

I think the main driving force is to create a company that owns slingbox technology and can get into IPTV and such and not owning a fleet of satellites so DOES NOT fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC.

Set up the way they are now if they sold a slingbox type gadget with "Dish" printed on the front and it let folks get distant locals or blacked-out sports the FCC and other fed regulators would be all over them like white on rice. Not to mention lawsuits and injunctions galore and content providers rescinding their retransmission agreements.

But if there is a company that builds digital hardware that has internet ports and USB and maybe even component video they would pretty much be immune from government interference just like TIVO and Slingbox are today.

Remember all the lawsuits by the recording industry against consumer tape recording equipment and movie companies against VCR makers ultimately failed because making a box that someone MIGHT use to break the law or steal copyrighted content is not the responsibility of the maker or seller.

 

[digitalartifact]

I see this as something that will stagnate DISH and its innovation or creative ability's to push what can be done. This maybe a win for E*, and Dish network... might not be all that bad at first for us consumers... but looking down the road they will have to work 5 times as hard to stay a float.

Running one company is a whole lot easer then running two and keeping them separate yet together...

I do not see the two (if separated) staying under e* or Charlie...

(Bye Bye DISH - hello AT&T Digital Sat Service??)

 

[drummerguy]

Here's an idea: Echostar Hardware/Satellite Business becomes separate entity and perhaps merges with or takes over DirectTV Hardware/Satellite resources to become the single provider of hardware/satellites for both Dish and DirectTV. Redundancy is gradually eliminated as customers of both services are moved to a single-platform. A merged satellite fleet has plenty of bandwidth for full-rez HD, internet, phone service, you name it.

Dish and DirectTV consumer businesses stay separate, avoiding anti-trust concerns.

Haven't both Charlie and D*'s CEO been saying for a while that they're trying to figure out ways to work together better?

Hmmm...

 

[Mike0616]

Here's an idea: Echostar Hardware/Satellite Business becomes separate entity and perhaps merges with or takes over DirectTV Hardware/Satellite resources to become the single provider of hardware/satellites for both Dish and DirectTV. Redundancy is gradually eliminated as customers of both services are moved to a single-platform. A merged satellite fleet has plenty of bandwidth for full-rez HD, internet, phone service, you name it.

Dish and DirectTV consumer businesses stay separate, avoiding anti-trust concerns.

Haven't both Charlie and D*'s CEO been saying for a while that they're trying to figure out ways to work together better?

Hmmm...

Phone service? Oh, I get it, lol, that was funny!

As to trying to do an end run around the FTC, that was yet another good one! Even Chuckie couldn't think all the lawyers are THAT simple!

 

[damjr]

I think the main driving force is to create a company that owns slingbox technology and can get into IPTV and such and not owning a fleet of satellites so DOES NOT fall under the jurisdiction of the FCC.

Set up the way they are now if they sold a slingbox type gadget with "Dish" printed on the front and it let folks get distant locals or blacked-out sports the FCC and other fed regulators would be all over them like white on rice. Not to mention lawsuits and injunctions galore and content providers rescinding their retransmission agreements.

But if there is a company that builds digital hardware that has internet ports and USB and maybe even component video they would pretty much be immune from government interference just like TIVO and Slingbox are today.

Remember all the lawsuits by the recording industry against consumer tape recording equipment and movie companies against VCR makers ultimately failed because making a box that someone MIGHT use to break the law or steal copyrighted content is not the responsibility of the maker or seller.

I like this perspective except for one thing............................................

Dish was an investor in the company from the start. If FCC violations were the case, wouldn't the FCC all ready be all over them "like white on rice".

 

[damjr]

Here's an idea: Echostar Hardware/Satellite Business becomes separate entity and perhaps merges with or takes over DirectTV Hardware/Satellite resources to become the single provider of hardware/satellites for both Dish and DirectTV. Redundancy is gradually eliminated as customers of both services are moved to a single-platform. A merged satellite fleet has plenty of bandwidth for full-rez HD, internet, phone service, you name it.

Dish and DirectTV consumer businesses stay separate, avoiding anti-trust concerns.

Haven't both Charlie and D*'s CEO been saying for a while that they're trying to figure out ways to work together better?

Hmmm...

:up Now this idea I like. My vote is here.

 

[kb7oeb]

A similar thing was once done with cell phones, in CA and NY Cingular and T-Mobile started another 50/50 owned company that owned the infrastructure and spectrum licenses for those two states. It was no longer needed after Cingular bought AT&T and T-Mobile bought it out.

I think the two DBS companies are too different to share spectrum and infrastructure now though.

 

[steve4810]

I like this perspective except for one thing............................................

Dish was an investor in the company from the start. If FCC violations were the case, wouldn't the FCC all ready be all over them "like white on rice".

Investment is different than control. If each company has its own common stock and board of directors then the sins of one can't be held against the other.

The larger company could own 1/3 of the stock of the other but legally it could not compel or prevent it from carrying out the design, manufacture or sale of a gadget that allowed the possibility of an illegal use.

If my kid (40 yrs) moved back to the house and had the bad luck to beat the crap out of some bully that bully could sue him but not me and my assets would be safe. Same as the spin off. At one time I was his boss but now he's on his own even if I feed him, give him a bed and do give him advice 23+ hours a day.

 

[steve4810]

If my kid (40 yrs) moved back to the house and had the bad luck to beat the crap out of some bully that bully could sue him but not me and my assets would be safe. Same as the spin off. At one time I was his boss but now he's on his own even if I feed him, give him a bed and do give him advice 23+ hours a day.

I suppose I should point out my son lives in a really nice house of his own and I only feed him on major holidays and he has never raised a hand to another human being in his forty years on earth. And I don't advise him 23 hours in a year (though when he asks I advise and he listens. He's a good man)

 

[foghorn2]

I see this as something that will stagnate DISH and its innovation or creative ability's to push what can be done. This maybe a win for E*, and Dish network... might not be all that bad at first for us consumers... but looking down the road they will have to work 5 times as hard to stay a float.

Running one company is a whole lot easer then running two and keeping them separate yet together...

I do not see the two (if separated) staying under e* or Charlie...

(Bye Bye DISH - hello AT&T Digital Sat Service??)

Couldn't have said it better myself. The innovation will shurely go away and the greedy socialist telcos will get their way.

 

[mdwatt]

I've heard the At&T rumor before, and not just in this forum. Dish aquiring sling makes them more attractive to companies looking to buy them. So does being partnered with WildBlue. When you're looking to sell yourself to another company, you want to do just that.....sell yourself. And to do that, what do you need? Value. Here's what DISH offers in value as a company: TV serivce, internet service (wildblue), tv viewing in multiple locations without a "receiver" (sling), there was another company they had partnered with too here a while back that was working on mobile dish for cars or something like that also. Now, look at what AT&T offers: voice, cellular, and data, all thru different mediums. Now, combine the two and look what you have: A one stop shop for all your needs. AT&T becomes the Wal-Mart of telecommunications. They would be the largest telecommunications company in the world (as if they weren't already), providing the largest and most diverse amount of services to the most amount of customers world-wide. Think of the mass market appeal, to go to one company and have all of your technology needs provided to you - TV, phone, cellular, internet. Bundling those services as such would allow for a lower cost to the end-consumer, thereby increasing AT&Ts customer base. And that's just in the short term. Now, for the long term, consider this: IPTV technology matures and allows tv transmission over internet lines, either with improvements to existing lines via compression tech or whatever. This will also work for people who don't have adequate landline service and must rely on a wireless connection, i.e., WildBlue (bandwidth limited right now I know, but still hypothetically...who knows). Slingbox technology improves and allows for one set-top box to be installed anywhere in the home, allowing TV, phone AND internet to be broadcast throughout the home wirelessly to any TV or laptop. No more multiple receivers for multiple rooms of TV. No more ethernet lines getting tangled up....the possibilities are virtually endless.


I've been saying this for years: Eventually you're going to have 1 box in your home to do everything: phone, internet, tv...all of it. And there's going to be 1 company to step up to the plate and deliver in 1 box, what it takes all the other companies combined to do.

It's coming fellas. Don't make me say I told you so.

 

[Mike0616]

I've heard the At&T rumor before, and not just in this forum. Dish aquiring sling makes them more attractive to companies looking to buy them. So does being partnered with WildBlue. When you're looking to sell yourself to another company, you want to do just that.....sell yourself. And to do that, what do you need? Value. Here's what DISH offers in value as a company: TV serivce, internet service (wildblue), tv viewing in multiple locations without a "receiver" (sling), there was another company they had partnered with too here a while back that was working on mobile dish for cars or something like that also. Now, look at what AT&T offers: voice, cellular, and data, all thru different mediums. Now, combine the two and look what you have: A one stop shop for all your needs. AT&T becomes the Wal-Mart of telecommunications. They would be the largest telecommunications company in the world (as if they weren't already), providing the largest and most diverse amount of services to the most amount of customers world-wide. Think of the mass market appeal, to go to one company and have all of your technology needs provided to you - TV, phone, cellular, internet. Bundling those services as such would allow for a lower cost to the end-consumer, thereby increasing AT&Ts customer base. And that's just in the short term. Now, for the long term, consider this: IPTV technology matures and allows tv transmission over internet lines, either with improvements to existing lines via compression tech or whatever. This will also work for people who don't have adequate landline service and must rely on a wireless connection, i.e., WildBlue (bandwidth limited right now I know, but still hypothetically...who knows). Slingbox technology improves and allows for one set-top box to be installed anywhere in the home, allowing TV, phone AND internet to be broadcast throughout the home wirelessly to any TV or laptop. No more multiple receivers for multiple rooms of TV. No more ethernet lines getting tangled up....the possibilities are virtually endless.


I've been saying this for years: Eventually you're going to have 1 box in your home to do everything: phone, internet, tv...all of it. And there's going to be 1 company to step up to the plate and deliver in 1 box, what it takes all the other companies combined to do.

It's coming fellas. Don't make me say I told you so.

ATT is already the wally world of communications. They sell shoddy crap at cheap prices, but its really overinflated for its real value, just as wally world does. ATT cell service is what is holding the iPhone back more than price, u-verse is such crap you can't have more than 1 HD device at a time, etc. What more could you want?

I am predicting that if ATT does this, it will be the best thing that ever happened to DTV stock, and I will buy some one more time.

 

[treacherous]

Anyone else think that this could also be an opportunity for TiVo to get together with the service ends of D* and DISH to create a digital standard that would allow HD service to TiVo boxes over satellite?

 

[broadcasttheworld]

At&t

Is this simply dishnetwork aligning themselves to be purchased by AT&T?

 

[broadcasttheworld]

FYI soon U-Verse will be about to carry 2 HD and 2 SD per house.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

FYI soon U-Verse will be about to carry 2 HD and 2 SD per house.

Soon? I thought I heard Q4 2008...

 

[broadcasttheworld]

Soon? I thought I heard Q4 2008...

Not sure exactly on when. But I know I am hearing AT&T engineers are working to get the HD compression down to the level that would allow it to carry 2HD and 2SD. SD is only about 1.5 Mb per stream as where HD is 6Mb per stream. MPEG4

 

[Mike0616]

Soon? I thought I heard Q4 2008...

That is soon, in the "forward looking statements" issued by ATT. By the time they get this implemented and functioning, the satellite companies and even the cable companies will have already skimmed the cream from the market.

ATT had what one would call "a tragedy designed in from the onset" and if the designers worked for me, they would all be unemployed. GOOD EE's don't design such shortcomings in, not in the areas that I have worked in.

 

[Mike0616]

Anyone else think that this could also be an opportunity for TiVo to get together with the service ends of D* and DISH to create a digital standard that would allow HD service to TiVo boxes over satellite?

One could hope so, but what we have always said in the electronics industry - "standards are so nice, there are always so many to chose from."

Unfortunately, I don't think any of us will live long enough to see shared set-top boxes / receivers as there have been so many design differences implemented over the years and whenever a new one comes out, management always demands that it be backwards compatible.

It HAS surprised me that TIVO has not been bought by either E* or D*. E* to stop all the legal proceedings, justified or not, it will soon be cheaper to have bought them, use the technology you want and shut them down then to keep paying the legal bills involved plus any possible damages. D* could buy them as they already are close in agreements (though not as much as in the past) and to carry on the legal actions against E* (although they would do it with the TiVo subsidiary so it didn't look as if they were just harassing a competitor.) D* could also use the parts of the technology and patents that TiVo has as well, so it looks like either D* or E* SHOULD have bought TiVo long ago, but then TiVo may be wanting an absurd amount for a company that has never turned a profit and likely never will (IIRC.)

Oh, well, will be interesting to see how this plays out.