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 t

betty: i think anybody would take a call from charlie ergen. charlie: i think people will 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 probably going to react to that. 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, the spectrum will be put to use, and it will create value for shareholders. we want to make sure it is put to use in the most economical way and 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 media titan charlie ergen. for years, ergen has been buying up gold. the wireless kind. he has bid in several auctions for wireless spectrum, which are basi

betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, billionaire charlie ergen. he weighs in on television, his plans, and he is 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 not 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. dish network ceo charlie ergen has been known as something of a renegade, from being thrown out of casinos for counting cards and selling dishes from his car. in the process of starting his company, he has become one of the richest man in america, worth more than $20 billion. he stepped out of the spotlight in 2011. hadning the reigns to joe clayton. 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 with an over the top product, sling tv. he wants to buy assets of what he sa

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. j 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. sometimes you just 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, it will be put to use and we want to make sure it , provides the best competition and the best product. betty: could charlie ergen's next play the merger with 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 the airwaves that transmit your phone calls or video to your devices. analysts estimate ergen is sitting on almost $50 billion worth

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, he

betty: i think anybody would take a call from charlie ergen. charlie: certainly the wireless industry is controlled by two companies today. there are 20 times bigger than we are. they will make their moves and do their things and people will probably react. sometimes, you have to be ready to move when you see other things. one thing we know for sure is the spectrum we have is valuable and it will get put to use. we want to make sure it provides the best competition and product. betty: could his next play be a merger with t-mobile? i will ask him if all 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. they are the airwaves that transmit your phone calls or video to your devices. analysts estimate ergen is sitting on $50 billion worth of this gold. maybe t-mobile. he would not confirm the rumors but i asked him if it would be logical for the two companies to team up. charlie: i think there

betty: i think anybody would take a call from charlie ergen. e: i think people will 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 probably going to react to that. 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, the spectrum will be put to use, and it will create value for shareholders. we want to make sure it is put to use in the most economical way and 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 media titan charlie ergen. for years, ergen has been buying up gold. the wireless kind. he has bid in several auctions for wireless spectrum, which are basicall

betty: join me as charlie ergen

betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, billionaire charlie ergen. s in on television, his plans, and he is 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 not 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

. ♪ betty: he is the country boy millionaire of dish network, billionaire charlie ergen. ghs in on television, his plans, and he is 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 not somebody who is not used to high expectations, you're going to be in trouble. betty: join me and charlie ergen

[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

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. >

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.

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. rge 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

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