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Technology Stocks : Echostar Comm. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fairways9 who wrote (803)	5/13/1998 7:27:00 PM
From: Goodboy	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1394

You are right. They are getting their new subs off of Primestar's back and not Direct TV. You are making the point that Primestar can't compete with a 29 inch dish. They are only picking up subs in rural areas where dish size doesn't matter They are losing market share to their two competitors because the DOJ and FCC won't let them compete by allowing their entry to offer an 18 inch dish with similar capacity. DISH is up 12 percent in two days and TSATA is down 27 percent. That should tell the DOJ and FCC who was competing with who. DBS companies compete with each other for the people who are deciding to get more program options or better service (as well as those who are in non-cabled areas) by leaving their cable provider. When you get on the net or walk into a store, there can be two options on price, terms and programing or there can be three choices. Since when does the DOJ advocate a duopoly over 3 (answer is yesterday). If cable companies were going to really force Primestar (a public company with fiduciary duties under the SEC, etc.) to sit on the 110 spot and not compete, then DTV and Echo would have the whole market to themselves. Why would they care? The FCC and DOJ already have consent decrees to prevent cable partners from denying access to programing to DBS providers and the FCC just handed Echostar a victory over being denied programing by News Corp.(who they are suing for 5 billion!). There is no good reason to deny this transaction accept to benefit DTV and Echo by knocking out their third competitor. The barrier to entry for a new player is over 3 billion and not one company is lining up for the opportunity. Happy for DISH holders, but feel that TSATA below 7 is a great value. Remeber, Mexico will auction off full conus spots soon. ECHO is testing one slot as we speak. Primestar can bid and DOJ can't do a thing about it (they call it free trade).