Just my 2 little cents...
I think both sides are mad at each other, but Dish has the upper hand and Voom needs to realize this and say ok well you can have atleast 8 of the channels or something like that, or they may go out of business this year.
A agree...if VOOM were trying to grow their business unit. However, I get the feeling the affiliation agreement basically turned VOOM15 in a pseudo exclusive with Dish Network. For example, a few of us wondered by VOOM didn't sell some of their more popular channels (Monsters, Rave, Equator) a la carte to other providers (Cable, FiOS, DirecTV) here in the U.S. - it was VOOM15 or nothing and even CableVision, their parent company, didn't offer VOOM until last year.
The only a la carte deals VOOM struck were foreign providers in Canada and Asia. Given the nature of the agreement, I get the feeling VOOM would be required to offer E* the same deal should they sell the VOOM channels a la carte or in smaller package to others in the U.S. market. Although I doubt it, this may actually turn out to be a very good thing for VOOM in the long run.
Additionally, VOOM is just a small subset of Rainbow Media which produces and distrubutes WE, AMC, and IFC. These channels are widely sold and generate positive cash flow for the company. It really won't take much to shutdown VOOM HD Networks, plus the HD studio can still be used to create material...oh, perhaps WE-HD, AMC-HD, and IFC-HD. What sucks in the $$$ they are no longer receiving from E*. Back to my previous point, Rainbow Media is very good at schlocking their wares and I could never figure out why they were so insistant on selling VOOM as a 15 channel all-or-nothing package. It makes sense there was something in the affiliation agreement that threaten their cash cow with E* if they broke up the VOOM15 package.
Anyway, it would appear that VOOM is hell bent on taking this matter in front of a jury, which may take years. Meanwhile, will we see VOOM sell their channels a la carte? Will we see the creation of WE-HD, AMC-HD, IFC-HD and Fuse-HD? If so, will VOOM refuse to make them available to E*? To be honest, if I were Rainbow Media I would use the VOOM HD studio to create WE-HD, AMC-HD, IFC-HD and Fuse-HD, and refuse to make them available to E* until they renew the affiliation agreement.