News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has been in negotiations for about a year to acquire DirecTV by merging Hughes, the General Motors division that owns the broadcaster, with satellite holding company Sky Global, parent of BSkyB.
He has already had to change tack once during the negotiations to keep Hughes and General Motors shareholders happy. His current offer will see Sky Global Networks merge with Hughes.
However, some of Sky Global's loss-making assets, such as Italian pay-TV group Stream, have been removed from the deal, as has DirecTV's security system NDS, to avoid GM being lumbered with a large tax bill once the transaction is completed.
Murdoch is believed to have secured $4bn (£2.8bn) in funding from Microsoft and Liberty Media's John Malone. This will be put toward the $6bn (£4.2bn) cash GM will receive as part of the deal, which it is said the car giant has insisted on.
Since EchoStar tabled its $32bn (£22.6bn) all-share deal on Sunday, Wall Street analysts believe News Corp may be forced to increase its offer, which is believed to come in below that of EchoStar's proposed bid.
Analysts also believe that an EchoStar-DirecTV combination would create more cost savings and potential revenue than a Sky Global-Hughes merger.
EchoStar and DirecTV combined would have 16m subscribers and be in a more powerful position to compete with leading cable TV giants such as AT&T and AOL Time Warner.
EchoStar has also indicated that it may be willing to offer cash as part of its offer if it would help to seal the deal.
This afternoon in the US General Motors said it was taking the unsolicited by EchoStar seriously.
John Devine , chief financial officer of GM told a conference: "If it's a serious proposal, and we think it is, we're going to take it very seriously. We're going to evaluate it. This is an important issue for us, and we're going to take the time it takes to get it right."