That was Primestar's plan about 1 month after the merger broke off between News and Charlie, but things have quietly changed. The "Primestar rollup" is being completed without Murdoch, becuase Primestar couldn't afford to wait any longer and any Primestar configuration that would have included Murdoch faces scrutiny from the FCC, FTC and the Justice Dept.
So now you've got questions once more. Primestar is still talking about a high-powered service of some sort from the Tempo satellite (which will become Primestar's after the rollup is complete), but they are not sure what kind of service and Tempo's satellite has been plagued by power losses and is operating at a reduced capacity. While it could still function well enough to offer some kind of service (including a cable-company provided satellite offering for small, weak rural cable companies), the track record of the bird makes another failure somewhat likely, and there is no adequate backup. Interestingly, there is always the chance that, if they DON'T offer service soon, the FCC will take their freq's at the 119 slot and give it to Charlie or auction it off. Either way, I don't think those freq's are worth as much to Charlie as they would be to anyone else, and although Murdoch would probably love to run up the price in an auction scenario (to pay Charlie back for forcing him to pay $682m for the 110 slot), I don't think he's in a position to throw more money away out of spite.
Finally, that leaves Murdoch, and it is uncertain how he will proceed. He built at least one satellite, which was supposed to launch last fall, but I don't think it has. His relationship with MCI was put into question after the announced merger with British Telecom, but then WorldCom outbid BT and now even that deal faces antitrust issues.
With MCI so uncertain and any Murdoch deal with Primestar a way off, it still seems to me to be a two dog race. I think that DISH can be number 2 in growth and be quite happy.
Regards,
NOEL |
