#1 As far as blockbuster was concerned. The whole point of buying them was to provide a DVD by mail service similar to what Netflix was doing and to open Dish Network stores similar to what you see with Comcast and the cable providers.
The issue was that DVD by mail was a dying service, and the streaming service offered by blockbuster at the time was a joke at best.
#2 As far as Dish networks wireless licenses, this is something they should have launched in 2012, NOT 2019. A billion dollars is really nothing when it comes to building out a 5G Network.
Granted Data is great, but cell service is a natural complement to any data service. If they don't do cellular, they are idiots.
I think Dish doing anything with wireless is a farce. I thinking they are waiting for Sprint, Verizon or T-Mobile to start getting worried in hopes they will partner with someone.
The only issue with Dish is their track record stinks. Let me see, Rupert Murdoch, Microsoft, AT&T and many other partnerships Dish has entered into where short lived and ended in disaster. They can't even get along with the programmers.
The writing on is on the wall for Dish.
The wireless buildout should have started 8 years ago.
Even if Dish got their wireless built out, they are only going to be able to effectively sell in areas that are under served. ATT has been going on a rampage installing fiber to all their territories. Once fiber comes to town, it's game over for Dish.
#1: I am unaware of Dish ever having intentions of a DVD via mail service when they bought Blockbuster. Dish bought the Blocbuster
BRAND for Dish's notion of a streaming and download service, but it never got past using the BlockBuster brand for Dish customers. Dish branded their Dish On Demand service as the Blockbuster brand, then years later dropped the Blockbuster brand altogether. Blockbuster was bought for chump change, so no real loss. Also, the idea of using the Blockbuster retail sites as Dish showrooms was an idea AFTER the acquisition of Blockbuster, and only because Dish inherited leases for those stores in shopping centers or store fronts. Dish was trying to figure out if it may be worth renewing some of those leases and using brick and motor stores for some purpose. In the end, Dish just dumped all the retail sites.
#2 There was no 5G years ago and the MVPD business was still growing 8 years ago, so MVPD's didn't have a reason to get into a business they knew nothing about on something utterly speculative. Further, the FCC was not encouraging new entrants to the wireless business and the spectrum for new players just was NOT available. It was only AFTER new spectrum became available (most recently) that we can only begin to hope of new players, but the spectrum was all gobbled up by the incumbent wireless companies who would outbid everybody else, and Dish had LESS money for such adventures 8 years ago.
I agree that Dish often seems like a one-trick pony kind of company. In fact, Ergen himself said so on a quarterly conference call. It seems when they buy a company they just can't quite blend it into their own and make it work: Blockbuster brand dies, SlingMedia now shrunk, etc.
And let's see. Who are the people or companies who abandoned their plans to challenge DirecTV with their own DBS service: MCI (Dish bought their slot and transponders and MCI's under construction satellite) , among others, but most noticeably Rupert Murdoch. While at first very bullish and eager to get in the satellite game, Rupy got cold feet and succumbed to the same fear everyone else had: that they got into the sat game too late and they had no chance of competing with DirecTV. Who was left? O'l Charlie himself with a growing and successful business when everybody else had fled the scene, and Murdoch later admitting he had make a mistake in pulling out of the DBS game. And Charlie sued Mr. Murdoch for breach of contract because Rupy was no longer interesting in merging his media empire with then Echostar. Ergen won the suit and got boatload of case and the then beginnings of the Gilbert, AZ up-link facility that took Dish some years to complete and open for operation.
Yes, Charles has flaws, but he did not build Echostar and Dish by accident, but by his business acumen: convinced Dish can compete with DirecTV; that Dish could successfully poach customers away from cable to Dish; believing that offering Local into Locals was the path to growth; by betting big in the then new technology of DVR to attract and keep more subscribers to Dish; and more . . . Every other MVPD was playing catch up.
Also, who was FIRST with an OTT MVPD? It was ol' Charlie with Dish creating SlingTV, and Ergen had been working on this long before anyone else, trying to persuade content providers that and OTT MVPD was good thing to make them more money, not a bad thing that would reduce the value of the content. Ergen can often see the future when other CEO/Chairmen can't.
Bottom line, while some of your negative criticisms of Charlie Ergen are sound, its as if wen someone with an axe to grind or holding some sort of on-line vendetta keeps such a mind from accepting that or seeing that Ergen did and does know what he is doing in the big scheme of things or recognizes that while Ergen has made mistakes, he also did things that translated into a success for Dish, and it's an inconvenient truth that doesn't fit the preferred narrative by some of Ergen having only made bad decisions and because of him Dish already closed for business some time ago. And there was never any "disaster" with his relationships with other companies, and Brian Roberts has far more poisoned relationships with the media companies who provide the content then Ergen every had. It seems Ergen and Disney's Bob Iger have a good relationship, and even ol' Tom Rogers and Ergen still have a good relationship. I can also recall the INFAMOUS Time Warner Cable vs ABC stand-off that was far worse than any of the Dish disputes with content providers. The TWC vs ABC tiff got so nasty, the Govt. had to urge restraint and many cancelled their TWC service. But after a week or so, both companies kissed and made up, and its the same story for ALL the MVPD's. Ergen is not unique in his spats with content providers because ALL the MVPD's have done the same.
Ergen is probably difficult to work for and can probably be a real pain, and is probably no "angel," but that is true of almost all of these media business CEO's/Chairman. Charlie is not unique in that regard. There must be a lot hate to train one's mind to not see what does not fit one's narrative of who a person is.
