Douglas County – EchoStar Communications Corp.’s annual meeting lasted about 12 minutes Tuesday, but shareholders kept two of the company’s top executives in the room twice as long.
The annual meeting is one of the rare times each year where shareholders get to pick the brain of the usually-tight lipped chairman and chief executive, Charlie Ergen, on all things related to the competitive pay-TV industry.
Company president and vice chairman Carl Vogel joined Ergen in answering questions from a group of four shareholders who lingered after the official meeting.
Here’s what Ergen and Vogel had to say.
Satellite technology is a one-way system, able to beam down programming but unable to register remote-controlled commands from users.
To get around that handicap, EchoStar and rival DirecTV have hooked set-top boxes into high-speed landline-based Internet connections in order to take on-demand orders. That connection also allows the set-top box to hold a set amount of programs each month.
Ergen said new models of Dish Network set-top boxes will come equipped with larger hard drives with the ability to hold up to 20,000 movies. EchoStar operates the Dish Network.
According to some industry analysts, satellite companies face a competitive disadvantage because they don’t offer a bundle – or “triple play” – of video, phone, and Internet services that they solely control. Instead, EchoStar and DirecTV have partnered with telecommunications companies to bundle their TV service with phone and Internet offerings.
Wi-Max, an up-and-coming wireless technology that can offer broadband Internet access over a broader coverage area than Wi-Fi hot spots, is often seen as an investment possibility for satellite companies.
“Two years ago, Wi-Max was overpromised and undelivered, but two years from now, it will be over-delivered,” Ergen said.
EchoStar, unlike many cable companies that have ownership interest in programming, has typically shied away from owning TV content. But Vogel didn’t rule it out somewhere down the road.
“It may make sense for us to acquire content and create a channel,” he said.
Vogel said EchoStar could capitalize on the switch to digital TV, slated to take place in February 2009, by selling its set-top converters and then offering some of its own programming through those boxes.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
