Meet the Man Who Wants to Blow Up the TV Business: Dish Network’s Charlie Ergen Comes to Dive Into Media

Charlie Ergen brings TV into 14 million houses, which means he’s got a very nice business that has made him a billionaire. But while lots of pay-TV operators are happy to keep things the way they are, Ergen keeps trying to blow them up: The Dish Network co-founder and chairman is constantly fighting with the rest of the TV Industrial Complex, in disputes that often end up in court.

His most recent and prominent battle is also the most important one: Dish’s new “Auto Hop” technology lets satellite TV subscribers automatically skip commercials, and that has both advertisers and TV networks in fits, for obvious reasons. But that’s just one of Ergen’s recent adventures. He has also bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy in an attempt to take on Netflix, engaged in bruising battles with Cablevision and its AMC Networks spinoff, and rattled his saber against ESPN and its ever-increasing sports fees. Oh. He’s also talking to Google, and everyone else, about getting into the wireless business. All of which means the former blackjack and poker player is someone everyone in the media world watches very, very closely, even though he doesn’t say much in public.