It also means that Echostar will be in charge of receivers, both U.S. and international, sling media, iptv sat service and most of the satellites-except the ones used to deliver DISHNETWORK , and DISH will be a seperate company that delivers the video from sat. Charlie will remain CEO of BOTH companies. This is a seperation for legal and business reasons. I would think that if DISH gets sold off to ATT or another company, then Charlie will still keep most of what made Echostar , Echostar. He could also go on to compete with who ever buys DISH with a newer mpeg 4 sat service at 86.5 and 97, if he still wanted to , barring any legal agreement he signs to sell DISH. It might also help spare the DISH side from any lawsuit payouts that are in play like TIVO. But from what I saw on the spread sheet someone posted about Echostar and DISH , most of the earnings come from the DISH dbs service revenue. IF they do indeed split the company into two halves , they might find themselves without a lot of money to pay for the echostar side, to develop new receivers or build new sats .