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Article: Bet on Small-Dish Future Pays Off Big.(EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Charlie Ergen and Jim DeFranco plans)
- Article from:
- Multichannel News
- Article date:
- April 24, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Monica Hogan
It's no secret Charlie Ergen likes to gamble. So it was only fitting that the chairman and CEO of EchoStar Communications Corp. chose Las Vegas as the backdrop to unveil the company's Dish Network direct-broadcast satellite service 10 years ago.
'He presented himself as the boy next door introducing a new thing called DBS as if DirecTV [Inc.] didn't exist,' said Buddy Davis, president of Waldorf, Md.-based satellite dealer Davis Antenna. EchoStar flipped the switch to turn on Dish service in front of hundreds of dealers at the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association show in March 1996.
'If you look at the history, ...