Is Charlie worried about Murdoch

ejcsfla

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Jan 18, 2004
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Murdoch will also be watching out for his longtime nemesis, EchoStar's Ergen, who has 9 million subscribers on his DISH Network. It was Ergen who handed Murdoch a rare defeat three years ago, when Hughes Electronics, DirecTV's parent, accepted his bid over Murdoch's. But Ergen's deal was rejected by regulators, largely because of Murdoch's behind-the-scenes lobbying in Washington. Ergen has not forgotten. For weeks he's been holding weekend meetings with his staff to figure out how to block Murdoch's advance. The ex-professional poker player, who started in the satellite business by selling dishes door-to-door, spends lavishly on promotions and offers rock-bottom prices. "Charlie's the best in the business," Murdoch says. "We just intend to be a little better."

Complete article here.

I came across this article about Murdoch and his purchase of controlling interest in Direct TV and am wondering if this is'nt what's been keeping our friend Charlie up at night and seemingly "out of it" lately.

Your Thoughts?
 
I think Charlie is feeling the heat and spending many a weekend strategizing what Dish is going to do next in terms of blocking Rupert and the new Directv.

If the fees that have been announced here and other boards about the dvr fees and now if a $5.99 warrenty fee per receiver is real , then Charlie is doing all the wrong things. It seems like he is hiking fees on everything worse than cable. Now I hear that there will be no discount for additional locals and superstations like before. They will be 5.99 each. Add to that the phone line connection requirement or a $4.99 fee will be added on the new 522 and 322, this is the wrong way to go.

These are things a mature company who doesn't hope to add any more market share would do. Gouge the existing customers as much as possible since you won't be adding any more market share. Dish is acting more and more like a monopoly utility company. It's us or ota antenna.

All the recent decisions he has flip floped on lately. The failed superdish idea for hd, and now using the Dish 500 and the 110 sat ,but no more credible hd networks out there to add , RIGHT! The failed new receivers and the software bugs galore on All of the new receivers. The fact that you can't even get a 522 or 322 unless you are on the digital home advantage plan. The fights with Turner and Viacom to keep the prices down and then go up on the price anyway on all subs except top 50/60.

If Rupert does what he says about giving free dvrs away to all his Directv customers and keeps up with Directv's existing customer retention promos and give aways, then Charlie won't survive like it is today. I don't know if Charlie is trying to raise revenue to make Dish attractive to a new buyer either to partner with or to unload the company on to some buyer.

Either way the path Charlie has taken is not helping his cause to attract new customers with his failed Cable the Pig campaign , which points out that cable raises it prices every year. How ironic , Dish has raised it's prices every year for three years in a row. Bad Timing on Charlies advertising department.

I don't see Charlie running Dish the way it is today. I don't even know if he will still be part of it 5 years from now. I love Dishnetwork and perfer them to cable or Directv but the direction that Dish has taken and continues to take this last year since the failed merger is not instilling confidence in me or many Dish stock owners either.

I just hope that the Dish vice president leaving is due to her bad decisions on the above mentioned mistakes. Because if her leaving is due to her standing up to Charlie on the above mentioned mistakes then we are all screwed and so is the future of Dishnetwork in competition with the new Rupert owned Directv.
 

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