Nbadan
08-22-2006, 01:52 AM
AUGUST 18, 2006
Technology
By Ronald Grover
Loud-and-Clear Verdict Rattles EchoStar
The satellite TV operator contemplates next steps after the latest federal court ruling against EchoStar's DVR service
If you're Charlie Ergen, you live by the sword and you die by the sword. The controversial CEO of satellite operator EchoStar Communications (DISH) has made a history of filing—and often winning—lawsuits against competitors, patent holders, and even once against a short-lived merger partner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS).
Now, Ergen is learning what it is like to be on the receiving end of one of those suits. On Aug. 17, a federal district court ruled that EchoStar must turn off its popular digital video recorder service in as many as 20% of the 12.5 million homes to which it supplies satellite TV signals.
HEFTY BILL. The federal court decision requires EchoStar to pay roughly $90 million in damages as well as to stop selling DVRs that the court had earlier ruled violated patents held by TiVo (TIVO). What's more, the ruling also requires EchoStar to turn off existing DVR service within 30 days. Although EchoStar has won a federal appeals court injunction against the award, it still faces the specter of Dish having to turn off as many as 4 million DVRs, figures Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Craig E. Moffett. That would make EchoStar customers easy pickings for satellite competitor DirecTV or cable.
And Ergen faces another potential legal nightmare. A federal appeals court in Atlanta has ruled that by Sept. 11 Echostar's Dish Network must stop sending signals from local TV stations to an estimated 800,000 of its subscribers in small towns that don't have their own local stations. The so-called violation of the federal government's so-called "distant network signal" could cost Echostar as much as $50 million a year, figures Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of digital media consultants The Carmel Group, but more importantly could send as many as 20% of Dish's subscribers over to DirecTV. "That's another $100 million or more a year and those subscribers won't come back," says Schaeffler. Ergen has been trying to negotiate a settlement with the broadcasters for months.
Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2006/tc20060818_359849.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index _businessweek+exclusives)
Cable?!? Direct TV?!? :lol
Time to switch back to Windows Multi-media edition and tape things on HD.
Technology
By Ronald Grover
Loud-and-Clear Verdict Rattles EchoStar
The satellite TV operator contemplates next steps after the latest federal court ruling against EchoStar's DVR service
If you're Charlie Ergen, you live by the sword and you die by the sword. The controversial CEO of satellite operator EchoStar Communications (DISH) has made a history of filing—and often winning—lawsuits against competitors, patent holders, and even once against a short-lived merger partner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS).
Now, Ergen is learning what it is like to be on the receiving end of one of those suits. On Aug. 17, a federal district court ruled that EchoStar must turn off its popular digital video recorder service in as many as 20% of the 12.5 million homes to which it supplies satellite TV signals.
HEFTY BILL. The federal court decision requires EchoStar to pay roughly $90 million in damages as well as to stop selling DVRs that the court had earlier ruled violated patents held by TiVo (TIVO). What's more, the ruling also requires EchoStar to turn off existing DVR service within 30 days. Although EchoStar has won a federal appeals court injunction against the award, it still faces the specter of Dish having to turn off as many as 4 million DVRs, figures Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Craig E. Moffett. That would make EchoStar customers easy pickings for satellite competitor DirecTV or cable.
And Ergen faces another potential legal nightmare. A federal appeals court in Atlanta has ruled that by Sept. 11 Echostar's Dish Network must stop sending signals from local TV stations to an estimated 800,000 of its subscribers in small towns that don't have their own local stations. The so-called violation of the federal government's so-called "distant network signal" could cost Echostar as much as $50 million a year, figures Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of digital media consultants The Carmel Group, but more importantly could send as many as 20% of Dish's subscribers over to DirecTV. "That's another $100 million or more a year and those subscribers won't come back," says Schaeffler. Ergen has been trying to negotiate a settlement with the broadcasters for months.
Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2006/tc20060818_359849.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index _businessweek+exclusives)
Cable?!? Direct TV?!? :lol
Time to switch back to Windows Multi-media edition and tape things on HD.