As expected, EchoStar has filed with the SEC to split its business in two, reports GigaOm. The two businesses will be the Dish Network satellite TV service and its set-top box business. That set-top box business includes place-shifting Slingboxes, which Echostar acquired with its $380 million purchase of Sling Media in September.
The satellite TV business will change its name to DISH Network, and the TV technology company will be called EchoStar Holding Company. Charlie Ergen will remain CEO of both. My suggestion: Sell the satellite TV service to AT&T or some other buyer and buy TiVo (current market cap is $820 million). Then start selling combined TiVo-Slingboxes to all the cable and satellite TV companies. Make sure they all have Ethernet jacks to incorporate Internet TV services so that I can watch everything from Joost to Youtube and Hulu on my TV. That assumes Ergen can succeed in selling these boxes to cable companies, an area where TiVo has struggled. But his status as one of the old boys in the industry (remember when he was considered a maverick?), could help him win over the incumbents.
Uh, make sure it has 802.11n wireless too (like Apple TV does). Yes, Ethernet is a must.
TiVo never really struggled to sell their devices to cable companies. The cable companies want the TiVo software, they just don’t want the TiVo branding. TiVo was/is unwilling to license its software unbranded.
In the end, TiVo seems to have won… they’re already rolling out branded set top boxes in a partnership with Comcast in certain parts of the country.
Erick – the Print Posts function on your site is broken – any choice of articles gives a ‘Error while handling request: Prince returned zero length PDF’ error.
Selling hardware is generally a tough business.
Selling hardware to cable monopolies that don’t care, is a terrible business. I can’t see how this is a good move for Dish.
interesting…
Erick, I completely agree with your stance. The best move for Echostar is to buy Tivo while its market cap is low. If you look at a recent stock chart of TIVO, it looks like investors may have beat you to the idea! Nice commentary…thanks Erick.
Doomed… remaining CEO of both business is silly… if you can’t run one large company successfully, why would you be able to run two large companies well?
Bad idea!
It’s best to be one big company doing lots of stuff!
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cable isn’t going to buy boxes from satellite companies. the box play is an indie move that i bet has wireless and ethernet connections and is about going around the cable companies as platforms like hulu get more robust,stable and accepted.
Both of these businesses will be obsolete in 10 years. All television will be delivered where ever you want, whenever you want. Wireless broadband internet – WiMax.
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They need to create a discussion board like tivo powered community.
@DB[ #7]
Krikorian will be running Sling division . i m sure he would be having some time commitment with Echostar as a part of Acquisition deal .
Sling Media has been a true pioneer in the digital media distribution space, and I hope that the surviving company continues to innovate.
Wireless? Any device? Videos from any provider directly on your TV without a computer? Sounds like WhereverTV to me!
Sling Top Box business has the best business model.
Even their system is not the best one compare to others, but their ideas, marketing potomtions are excelletnt.
The Slingbox could be pretty cool, but it really depends on how the details are executed.
I think the fact only one user gets access to the stream of content from a Slingbox at a time could be an issue. The cool thing is if we can watch are recorded programs on the iphone.
I just saw the CES Awards and the sling box is getting used on all kinds of mobile devices. This is really nice technology, especially since I travel a lot. Combine this with an addon Seagate DVR storage expander to your DISH Network DVR, and you will have some insane storage and than be able to watch it anywhere.
Compare satellite tv systems so you can decide if dish network is your best option. Then addon some storage and a slingbox and you’ll have a ton of tv and movies to watch on your way to work. I wish I could have gone to the CES show in Vegas.
Good point
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