betty: dish network founder charlie ergen. for the first time on bloomberg television, bergen weighs in on a seismic shift taking place in television. his plans for becoming the next big wireless company and why he might looking to merge with that guy, john ledger. charlie: they have done it for testing jobs in the upstart company. betty: he faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations. betty: join me as charlie ergen dishes it out on this addition of "titans at the table." hello. welcome to "titans at the table." charlie ergen has always been something of a fearless renegade. ergen led a group in the 1980's and started dish in the next decade. in the process, he has become one of the richest men in america, worth nearly $20 billion. he stepped out of the spotlight in 2011 and handed the ceo reins to joe clinton. he is back in the hot seat. with the satellite tv business in its early days, he wants to get the forefront of this change by creating a new over the top product called sling tv and b

dish network founder, charlie ergen. for the first time on bloomberg television, he weighs in on the seismic shift taking place in television. he plans to become the next big wireless company and why he may be looking to merge with that guy, the pink t-shirt wearing t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and if you are not somebody who is used to high expectations, you're just not as comfortable here. betty: join me as charlie ergen dishes it all out here at "titans at the table." i am betty liu. welcome to "titans at the table." dish network founder charlie ergen has always been known as something of a fearless renegade. from being thrown out of casinos for counting cards to selling satellites out of his car in colorado. he led a group that started echostar in the 1980's and then started dish in the 1990's. in the process, he has become one of the bridges man in america, worth more than $20 billion. ergen stepped out of the sp

betty: i think anybody would take a call from charlie ergen. charlie: i think anybody would take our call, but certainly the wireless industry is controlled by two companies today. there are 20 times bigger than we are. they are going to make their moves and do their things and people are going to react to that. and so sometimes, you have to be ready to move when you see other things that happen in this industry. one thing we know for sure is the spectrum we have is valuable and we will put it to good use, and we want to make sure it provides the best competition and the best product. betty: could charlie ergen's next play be a merger with t-mobile? i will ask him if all of those reports make sense when "titans at the table" returns. ♪ betty: welcome back to "titans at the table" and my conversation with charlie ergen. for years, ergen has been buying up gold. the wireless kind. he has bid in several auctions for wireless spectrum, which are basically the airwaves that transmit your phone calls or video to your devices. analysts estimate ergen

charlie ergen has always been something of a fearless renegade. ergen led a group in the 1980's and started dish in the next decade. in the process, he has become one of the richest men in america, worth nearly $20 billion. he stepped out of the spotlight in 2011 and handed the ceo reins to joe clinton. he is back in the hot seat. with the satellite tv business in its early days, he wants to get the forefront of this change by creating a new over the top product called sling tv and buying up the billions of dollars worth of wireless assets. assets he says can be used to build a legitimate competitor to at&t and verizon. when we first sat down for interview, i asked ergen to describe this new frontier. charlie: now we are in another transformation. it has gone about in two places. one is tv itself is transforming. people are looking for more of what they want to watch. they want to watch their tv everywhere and part of that is the technology of ott, over the top, allows customers to do that. the second transformation is the wireless industry where

♪ betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, charlie ergen.nd he is looking to emerge with that guy, the t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and for somebody who is not used to high expectations, you're going to be in trouble. betty: join me and charlie ergen as he dishes it out here at "titans at the table." ♪ betty: hello, i am betty liu. dish network ceo charlie ergen has been known as something of a renegade, being thrown out of casinos for counting cards and other things. in the process of starting his company, he has become one of the richest man in america, nearly $20 billion. -- worth more than $20 billion. he stepped out of the spotlight in 2011. just four years later, the founder is back in the hot seat. like the satellite tv business, ergen wants to be at the forefront of television change being at the top of sling tv. buying up billions of dollars of wireless assets. assets he says can be used to build up a legitimate competitor agains

tha betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, charlie ergen. and he is looking to emerge with dark of his plans for becoming the next big wireless company, and why he might be looking to merge with that guy. the t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and if you are somebody who is not used to high expectations, you're going to be in trouble. betty: join me and charlie ergen as he dishes it out here at "titans at the table." hello. i am betty liu. welcome to "titans at the table." dish network founder charlie ergen has been known as something of a renegade, being thrown out of casinos for counting cards and other things. he created echostar in the 1980's and then started dish in the next decade. in the process he has become one , of the richest man in america, worth more than $20 billion. he stepped out of the spotlight in 2011. handing the ceo reins to joe clayton. just four years later, the founder is back in the hot seat. as television undergoes ano

betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, charlie ergen. charlie: i think we have a lot to talk about. onty: for the first time bloomberg television, he talks about the seismic shift in television. he is looking to merge with his plans for becoming the next big wireless company, and why he might be looking to merge with that guy -- the t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss charlie: they certainly have done a fantastic job. betty: but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and if you are somebody who is not used to high expectations, you're just not going to be as comfortable here. betty: join me and charlie ergen as he dishes it out here at "titans at the table." hello. i am betty liu. welcome to "titans at the table." dish network founder charlie ergen has been known as something of a fearless renegade , being thrown out of casinos for counting cards and other things. he created echostar in the 1980's and then started dish in the next decade. in the process, h

dish network founder, charlie ergen.he first time on bloomberg television, he weighs in on the seismic shift taking place in television. he plans to become the next big wireless company and why he may be looking to merge with that guy, the pink t-shirt wearing t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and if you are not somebody who is used to high expectations, you're just not as comfortable here. betty: join me as charlie ergen dishes it all out here at "titans at the table." i am betty liu. welcome to "titans at the table." dish network founder charlie ergen has always been known as something of a fearless renegade. from being thrown out of casinos for counting cards to selling satellites out of his car in colorado. he led a group that started echostar in the 1980's and then started dish in the 1990's. in the process, he has become one of the bridges man in america, worth more than $20 billion. ergen stepped out of the spotligh

betty: join me as charlie ergen

betty: join me and charlie ergen

. ♪ ♪ betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, charlie ergen. looking to emerge with that guy, the t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and for somebody who is not used to high expectations, you're going to be in trouble. betty: join me and charlie e

[applause] ♪ >> dish network founder charlie ergen.on bloomberg television, he weighs in on seismic shifts taking place in television. his plan of becoming the next big wireless company and why he might be looking to merge with that guy, john ledger. >> they have done a fantastic job in being the upstart company i am curious about. betty: the famously tough boss faces pressure about his management style. charlie: if you

betty: dish network founder charlie ergen.he first time on bloomberg television, bergen weighs in on a seismic shift taking place in television. his plans for becoming the next big wireless company and why he might looking to merge with that guy, john ledger. charlie: they have done it for testing jobs in the upstart company. betty: he faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations.

talking about our john malone and rupert murdoch and sumner redstone and a little younger and charlie ergen, and now brian roberts has come into his own as ceo of comcast. his father, ralph roberts, died at the age of 95 i believe just last week. so these are really the media pioneers and titans. and they understood something that was very important and i would say they understood it better than anyone else in particular john malone but also the others, which was that content and technology are really two sides of the same coin. they understood that digital technology. they comprehended that if they tap into that digital technology and used it to further their businesses they could expand their media businesses worldwide. that's exactly what they did, and they built these businesses into multibillion dollars media empires that are both still top of the food chain today as much as we talk about silicon valley and google and apple. and by the way, those companies are valued in the public stock market much more highly, but when it comes to the media business, they are still really neophytes. >

dish network, charlie ergen. first time on bloomberg television, he weighs in on the seismic shift taking place in television. he plans -- his plans to become wireless company and why he may be looking to merge with that guy, the pink t-shirt wearing t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and if you are not somebody who is used to high

. ♪ ♪ betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, charlie ergen.erge with that guy, the t-mobile ceo john ledger. but the famously tough boss faces questions about his management style. charlie: we have high expectations, and for somebody who is not used to high expectations, you're going to

a couple of outliers yesterday dish.harlie ergen's he basically threw in the towel of the concept ofuilding a new wireless service. he said i might just sell the lease off mice actor. that was a good thing. for liberty, they split up some decent numbers, and there are still some way to go on pay-tv and europe. that if the conference of all we heard over the last few days in the u.s., where it looked that mature business with some challenges. brendan: the idea for comcast, nbc, time warner was always that you can only wire, contents, and you could do something with that. has that idea died? died ise idea that has that consumers will pay more and more for a big bundle of pay-tv channels going forward. that model is really under question right now, particularly because people are cutting the cord. even the mighty espn had took knowledge that they have fewer subscribers. that is a problem. you're trying to sell them advertising, you are trying to charge affiliate fees, and your base is shrinking -- that is a problem. tom: i love disney, disney paid my bonus last year. you bring up the di

the last time i interviewed charlie ergen, he indicated they might be willing to give us numbers. we'll start to see how things are doing. as that world is created, you have to watch the espns. how is it doing? you have to keep an eye on via come and wonder, can it compete with all the networks. are they must haves? is amc and discovery? does there need to be consolidation among the smaller players. these are the questions. >> last night i'm looking to see what i can get. there's a $50 option that cuts back the number of espns that i have. there's a lot of them. that is the $50 option which i like very much in a bundle suddenly saves me money by cutting out a couple of espns that i don't need. i don't. >> right. although right now verizon and disney are not seeing eye to eye. >> that's what i mean. this is a lawsuit going on and right in your face. this is the august option. i like to check the options. >> there's also the question of the sports only rights that can go away. and the proprietary content of espn is entirely different. >> that's true. i think -- there was a time when