The board of General Motors -- which owns Hughes, parent of DirecTV -- said it will review EchoStar's offer while pressing on with the final terms of its proposed deal with Rupert Murdoch.
EchoStar's bid is believed likely to fail because of the risk of a lengthy and thorough anti-trust investigation -- a merger between EchoStar and DirecTV would result in the creation of one satellite pay-TV group dominating the US market.
However, if it is rejected it could still work in EchoStar's favour, because it would further delay the merger between News Corp's Sky Global satellite holding company, parent of BSkyB, and Hughes.
This would allow EchoStar to gain crucial market share on its larger rival if DirecTV becomes unfocused during the drawn-out negotiations over its sale, which have already been going on for a year.
EchoStar received a further boost when pay-TV security technology firm Kudelski offered to put $1bn (£706m) towards financing the bid. Kudelski provides conditional access security to EchoStar, while DirecTV uses rival equipment from NDS, a division of News Corp.
Initially, EchoStar's bid involved an all-share transaction. However, EchoStar CEO Charles Ergin is said to have indicated that he would be willing to include some cash in order to tempt GM.
In New York yesterday, EchoStar's shares rose 25 cents to $29.04 (£20.50), News Corp's American depository receipts climbed 15 cents to $37.60 (£26.65), while Hughes's shares slipped 6 cents to $19.98 (£14.11).