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Last year, during EchoStar Communications’ prolonged and unsuccessful campaign to acquire Hughes Electronics’ DirecTV, EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen promised that if the merger weren’t approved, subscription fees would almost certainly increase.

His prophecy has come true: In early January, EchoStar announced that it would raise its basic subscription rates by $2 per month beginning in February. That's a 4% boost over the average monthly subscription rate of $50 per household. With approximately eight million subscribers on the company’s DISH Network, the increase will add $16 million per month to EchoStar’s revenue.

Company officials explained that the increase was needed to cover the costs of new channels, and further justified it by explaining that it was less than rate hikes recently introduced by many cable providers. The $192 million/year in new funds that will flow to the Littleton, CO-based direct broadcast satellite (DBS) operator will help to offset a $600 million "breakup fee" that EchoStar had to pay Hughes when the merger was nixed by federal regulators.

Ergen is reportedly now seeking buyout partners, such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., or John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. EchoStar has a market capitalization of $12.4 billion and debt of about $5.7 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch was a spoiler in the aborted EchoStar/DirecTV deal, and is reportedly still interested in adding DirecTV to his conglomerate’s roster.

Looking for a way out of its debt hasn’t stopped EchoStar from pursuing new product development. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, the DBSer showed a high definition satellite receiver/digital video recorder with a 250GB hard drive, capable of storing up to 250 hours of standard definition content or 40 hours of high-def programming. The DISH PVR921 will be available in the second quarter of this year. Later this year, EchoStar may also offer a Thomson-built 36" direct-view HD monitor with digital video input (DVI) and high-definition copy protection (HDCP). A prototype of the monitor was displayed in Las Vegas.