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1999 Consumer Electronics Show READ ALL ABOUT IT! PAGE 1 Sparks Fly Over DBS The heads of the four DBS services, together yesterday for probably their last major panel discussion, enjoyed a lively discussion of competitive issues in the panel “Satellite TV: the year ahead.” DirecTv President Eddy Hartenstein, Primestar Chairman Carl Vogel, EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen, and soon to be departing U.S. Satellite Broadcasting President Stan Hubbard focused on illuminating their companies’ overall philosophies rather than making any new announcements. Specifically, Hartenstein and Vogel repeatedly declined to comment on talk of a possible DirecTv buyout of the medium-power service. However, sparks flew between the DBS competitors on a couple of issues. Hartenstein and Hubbard repeated their argument that delivering local signals via satellite, as EchoStar plans, is not a viable business proposition, while Vogel suggested it could be a viable method of driving DISH Network’s market penetration, rather than as a pure money maker. “In and of itself, it’s difficult to rationalize, but just about anything we do in this business, in and of itself, is difficult to rationalize,” he quipped. Ergen suggested DirecTv and USSB do not believe in his local-into-local plan because they are focused more on their balance sheets than on their customers. “Let’s don’t be in our ivory tower as big executives flying around the country and not listening to the consumer,” Ergen said. Ergen also accused DirecTv, USSB, cable companies, and broadcasters of lobbying against legislation to permit local signal distribution via satellite to homes within reach of local broadcasters. “If I’m going to kill myself and go bankrupt, why not let me do it? But my competition’s always walking in after me with all their high-priced lobbyists telling everybody why I shouldn’t be allowed to go bankrupt.” Hartenstein insisted DirecTv supports local-into-local legislation as part of an overhaul of the entire satellite home viewer act. “As long as it’s addressed in conjunction with all the other issues that we feel are around the Satellite Home Viewer Act, we don’t have per se an objection to that,” Hartenstein said, “and I think we’ve been pretty consistent on that.” Hubbard, on the other hand, took strong exception to Ergen’s accusation. “That’s not even close to true, from the USSB side. From the Hubbard Broadcasting side, we’ve been very consistent and very specific for a number of years,” as owners of an ABC station in Minneapolis, he said. “What our position has always been in Washington is ‘Do not step on somebody’s copyright. We own that copyright in that local market, and we should have the ability to decide if EchoStar or anybody else in satellite can redistribute that signal back into that marketplace.” Despite the ongoing talks between DirecTv and Primestar, none of the panelists were willing to argue two DBS services could compete with cable better than three. “I think that Primestar has been good for this industry, and I would submit that Primestar remains good for this industry, just to keep my colleagues somewhat honest,”Vogel said. The more concrete consolidation news recently—DirecTv’s planned purchase of USSB—gives EchoStar pause, Ergen said. “Certainly, we have been able to capitalize on the two companies and two phone bills [current DirecTv/USSB system owners have to deal with], and we’re not going to be able to do that anymore,” he said. Hubbard, meanwhile, expressed some sadness about the transaction. “In a perfect world, we’d still prefer to stay independent,” he said, noting USSB will try to turn over to DirecTv a better company than DirecTv expects. TURN THE PAGE OTHER ISSUES: Thursday, Jan. 7, 1999 Friday, Jan. 8, 1999 Sunday, Jan. 10, 1999   Please direct questions about this site to general.mail@satbiznews.com q 2000 Satellite Business News Inc. All rights reserved.