There’s a “Plan A” at Dish Networks, and it’s to...
There’s a “Plan A” at Dish Networks, and it’s to move aggressively into the wireless business, CEO Joe Clayton told a New York media briefing Tuesday. But “if you can’t get a partner, for a myriad of reasons, then you'd…
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better have a Plan B,” Clayton said of recent statements by Dish Chairman Charles Ergen that merging with DirecTV possibly would be a “doable” deal (CD Nov 7 p4). “Plan B may be, let’s merge with DirecTV and have bigger size and scale, and then we'll launch wireless,” Clayton said. Plan C, if that doesn’t work, would be for Dish to be bought by AT&T, he said. Plans D and E would be to “sell the spectrum,” he said. “All of these are speculation, but you'd better have several different paths to success.” All would be in the best interests of Dish employees, customers and shareholders, he said: “I'm not going to handicap any of the above, but I can tell you our efforts right now is on Plan A, and that’s to move aggressively into the wireless space.” No “aggressive negotiations” are taking place between Dish and DirecTV or other potential merger partners, he said. “These are all possibilities down the road. We're moving to wireless.” On Dish’s legal battle with broadcasters over Dish’s Auto-Hop commercial-skipping feature, “we won Round 1” about a month ago when a federal judge in California denied Fox’s motion for a preliminary injunction barring the Auto-Hop feature, Clayton said. ABC has moved for a similar injunction in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, and a ruling on that motion is expected in January, he said. “We expect to prevail on that,” as Dish did in the California court, he said. “We think we'll be in pretty good shape as we go forward. That’s not going to stop the broadcasters from challenging the thing, but we'll knock them off one at a time.” Clayton thinks ultimately there'll be “a meeting of the minds,” resolving the dispute, he said. “We don’t want the broadcasters mad at us. We're supposed to be partners.” Clayton thinks that instead of “challenging technology,” broadcasters should “embrace” it, using it to “better target ads and commercials to the buying public,” he said. Broadcasters “don’t get this,” he said. Instead of embracing technology, “they walk away from it, and then they wonder why their viewership declines every single year and why the effectiveness of the advertising is not as good.” Broadcasters will never stop consumers from skipping commercials, he said: “Are you kidding me?”