Yes its true!!
The Charlie Ergen Show Echostar's founder is one tough operator who will soon take control of the satellite TV industry--if Washington lets him. - September 2, 2002
Realizing that its oversized dishes were obsolescent, Echostar scrambled to launch its own small-dish network in 1996. Ergen couldn't afford to get into a marketing war with DirecTV, even after raising $300 million in junk bonds and taking the company public in 1995. (Echostar actually distributed the DirecTV service for 18 months to help pay the bills.) But in contrast with Hughes, Ergen came at satellite TV from the ground up--he knew the customers, he had a network of loyal retailers, and it was a safe bet that Echostar could operate its service, called DISH, more nimbly and efficiently than a company that had lived off government contracts. "We built the company to be the low-cost producer, soup to nuts, in every way," Ergen says.
The Charlie Ergen Show Echostar's founder is one tough operator who will soon take control of the satellite TV industry--if Washington lets him. - September 2, 2002
Realizing that its oversized dishes were obsolescent, Echostar scrambled to launch its own small-dish network in 1996. Ergen couldn't afford to get into a marketing war with DirecTV, even after raising $300 million in junk bonds and taking the company public in 1995. (Echostar actually distributed the DirecTV service for 18 months to help pay the bills.) But in contrast with Hughes, Ergen came at satellite TV from the ground up--he knew the customers, he had a network of loyal retailers, and it was a safe bet that Echostar could operate its service, called DISH, more nimbly and efficiently than a company that had lived off government contracts. "We built the company to be the low-cost producer, soup to nuts, in every way," Ergen says.