FCC: Joint Petition Filed to Deny Assignment of Licenses (Charles F Dolan)

"Great research and great post. This is the stuff I stay in this forum for.
Thank you.
Now to find out how to join the The Association of Consumers to Preserve and Promote DBS Competition (ACPPDC)."


Yes I agree, now this The Association of Consumers to Preserve and Promote DBS Competition (ACPPDC)." should post a PETITION we could all sign and they submit on our behalf. Also most VOOMERS would gladly become members of this pro-Voom group for a nominal fee to support Voom HD, LLC.

One winner for sure will be all the Lawyers that will now be involved in these issues!This will be very expensive and time consuming and next will be a demand that VOOM can not be shut down by Cablevision, till these issues are resolved, I suspect. What a fighter Charles is. He's the man!
 
rickaren said:
...One winner for sure will be all the Lawyers that will now be involved in these issues!This will be very expensive and time consuming and next will be a demand that VOOM can not be shut down by Cablevision, till these issues are resolved, I suspect. What a fighter Charles is. He's the man!
I think that as long as C. Dolan continues to pay the operating costs for Cablevision, VOOM will stay on the air.
 
the rollercoaster

I for one am really sick of the rollercoaster .. but the reality is: Even without the regional sports channels VOOM is by far the best service if the customer wants the best picture: SD or obviously HD .. the other services are NOT close. So I am in this for the long or short term, whatever the case may be.

Truth is, most of my friends think I am nuts. But that is what they said about Columbus and Jules Verne and Edison. Where's the beer?? :D

All this being said, for all my years working in Fortune 500 sales and dealing with Sr. Managers (not on the Dolan's level by any stretch), Chuck does look desperate. I think if Voom does get shut down, we the people, will not get much warning.
 
With Cablevision's shares down 5.7 percent today, this is not a good time for all this to happen, they have the thinking about bidding for Adelphia, the bitter feud with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg over his plans to build a stadium on Manhattan's West Side and the $760 million bid for the same area, the new members of the board now and in a month, Mr.Dolan trying to sabotage a sale made by his own company to benefit his new company ( the SEC will love that ), the SEC thing already going on, and Voom of course. :eek:
 
The rollercoaster is being caused by just one man...and his name is Jimmy "The Dolt" Dolan; just look at his track record and add up the number of people standing in line to pummel him. Removing Jimmy Dolan from head of Cablevision will solve a lot of problems IMO.
 
Ilya said:
From the petition:

VOOM HD is in the process of obtaining financial commitments from its controlling investors in the amount of $400 million in cash and credit...
And it has been said so loudly that the financing was "in place". :D :D :D
I guess not.

Interesting filing - and right along the lines it needs to be to be persuasive.

JL
 
riffjim4069 said:
The rollercoaster is being caused by just one man...and his name is Jimmy "The Dolt" Dolan; just look at his track record and add up the number of people standing in line to pummel him. Removing Jimmy Dolan from head of Cablevision will solve a lot of problems IMO.

This is his Track Record as reported by UsaToday in Today's paper:

What he cares about a lot, however, is Cablevision's share price. It's risen fivefold since the bleak summer of 2002.And while some may deride his style, Dolan says nobody should question his motivation: looking out for shareholders.

Dolan, 49, has been CEO for nearly 10 years. On his watch, Cablevision has moved aggressively to roll out digital services. Today, more than 50% of Cablevision homes get digital TV. The company rolled out an Internet phone product 18 months ago and serves 350,000 customers. Its high-speed product, called Optimum Online, has 1.4 million customers.

In the negative column: buying The Wiz, a consumer electronics chain. The Wiz wound up losing $400 million. Cablevision exited the business in early 2003.


And this is what Mr.Dolan said about his son:

One thing he is certain of is his son's value as Cablevision's CEO. "Every year when we report our results and give our guidance, it's better than the year before," he offers. "And, you know, that's the test."
 
the rollercoaster

riffjim4069 said:
The rollercoaster is being caused by just one man...and his name is Jimmy "The Dolt" Dolan; just look at his track record and add up the number of people standing in line to pummel him. Removing Jimmy Dolan from head of Cablevision will solve a lot of problems IMO.

AS Meg Ryan said in 'Joe Vs. the Volcano': I don't know how to respond to this.

Vooms's problem is not James Dolan but rather, a timing issue .. Voom is just ahead of its time, unfortunately the huge $$ losses are in real time. At least the forum is entertaining .. no matter how early in the day everyone who writes in has started drinking :D
 
Well now I've had a chance to read it all, it does appear that Voom HD made some assumptions in their filing that E* can counter in their opposition. I suspect they will stress the 'errors' in assumptions and the fact that Rainbow DBS did not succeed at that location. (Voom may succeed in the future after Voom HD LLC takes over, but Cablevision has declared the venture a failure leading to the sale to Echostar.)

I wouldn't be suprised to see opposition comments from Cablevision as well. The key will be keeping Voom in business until the FCC decides. If Voom folds, C Dolan's opinion that he can start and run a successful DBS business on those frequencies folds with it. C Dolan *MUST* keep Voom alive.

"THE ASSOCIATION OF CONSUMERS TO PRESERVE AND PROMOTE DBS COMPETITION" is interesting. Jerome Sandler is apparently a general surgeon in Rockville MD and member of Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. Sandler & Associates (FAX ID at the top of the page) is probably his medical practice. It probably would have been more effective if a number or list of membership in the association were given.

It will be interesting to see how E* and CV make the next play. Of course, C Dolan still has to get Voom past Thursday night ...

JL
 
Dolan to FCC: Block Deal with EchoStar
By Ted Hearn Multichannel.com

In another strange twist in the Voom saga, Cablevision Systems Corp. chairman Charles F. Dolan Monday asked federal regulators to block the transfer of direct-broadcast satellite spectrum from Rainbow DBS to EchoStar Communications Corp.

Dolan, joined by a group called The Association of Consumers to Preserve and Promote DBS Competition, asked the Federal Communications Commission to reject the deal on the basis that it would conflict with long-term agency competition goals.

Dolan and his allies said EchoStar’s acquisition of the satellite assets “would undermine” competition in the pay TV market and clash with “well-established” FCC policies of “fostering competition and new entry among DBS service providers.”

The filing stated that Voom HD was in the process of obtaining $400 million in financial commitments in an effort to purchase the satellite frequencies included in the transaction “should they once again become available in the market.”

Dolan’s filing said the EchoStar deal would harm competition because it “would result in a loss of service to the approximately 40,000 existing subscribers to the Voom DBS service.”

Cablevision first agreed to sell its “Rainbow 1” satellite to EchoStar in December for $200 million as part of a plan to eventually shut down the Voom service. But after pressure from Charles Dolan, Cablevision relented in February, agreeing to allow Dolan to continue to run the service and giving him until the end of March to secure funding.

It is estimated that Voom will need $1 billion-$1.5 billion to fund operations over the next few years.
(Mike Farrell contributed to this report.)
 
I never thought rollercoasters were very much fun!

It seems highly contradictory that Mr. Dolan, who is the Chairman of the Board of Cablevision, the company that currently owns VOOM, filed a petition with the FCC to block the sale of something that Cablevision (again, the company of which he is Chairman of the Board of) SIGNED A LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT TO DO. AND, one, which I might add, the Board of Directors had to approve the signing of in the first place.

A highly irregular action to be taken and one which I would personally view as desperate.
 
Chaos Rules Cablevision: from Variety

Chaos rules Cablevision: Uncertain future unravels at confab

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK, JILL GOLDSMITH


The combustible drama at Cablevision continued unabated Wednesday as one of the company's top execs did little to douse speculation that the cabler may make a midnight run for Adelphia, or that maverick founder Charles Dolan could betray his own company and bolt for the satcasting biz.

Cablevision chief operating officer Tom Rutledge tried to conduct his presentation at a Banc of America Securities confab in Gotham as if nothing were amiss but quickly found himself having to deflect questions about Adelphia and the furious family battle between Chuck Dolan and his son, Cablevision CEO James Dolan, over the satcasting service Voom.

Today is the deadline for Chuck Dolan to present his plan for buying Voom's assets to the Cablevision board. Earlier this week, Dolan filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission saying the new company he's formed to run Voom is in the process of securing financial backing totaling $400 million.

Rutledge was fuzzy when asked whether the Cablevision board may give Chuck Dolan more time.

Another deadline

That's not the only deadline. New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expected to decide today whether to accept the New York Jets' proposal to build a nearly $2 billion football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan -- or a counterproposal for the land use and air rights pushed by Jimmy Dolan and Cablevision.

At the Banc of America gathering, one investor asked Rutledge if it would really be feasible for Chuck Dolan to remain chair of the Cablevision board at the same time that he runs a satcaster venture, considering that satcasting is the archenemy of cable.

"No, I can't speak to that," Rutledge said.

Fulcrum Global Media analyst Richard Greenfield said the whole scene at Cablevision is surreal. He and other analysts were incredulous to learn that Chuck Dolan is asking the FCC to stop Cablevision from selling the Voom satellite to EchoStar, allowing him to keep all of the Voom assets.

"How could you be a competitor to yourself? How do you file against your own company?" Greenfield said.

While Rutledge said he couldn't comment specifically on Adelphia, he went on to say that Cablevision would indeed be interested in the right acquisition.

"We've shown in the past that you can take cable assets and generate rapid revenue," Rutledge said.

Unlikely match?

But analysts say they find it hard to believe that Cablevision would actually team up with private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Providence Equity Partners and make a play for bankrupt Adelphia.

Favored buyers are Time Warner Cable and Comcast, which have submitted a joint bid for Adelphia estimated to top out at $17.6 billion-$18 billion. The current bid by Providence and Kohlberg is estimated to be worth about $15 billion, although that bid would go up if Cablevision joined.

Greenfield and other analysts said Cablevision's sudden interest in Adelphia didn't make sense, considering Adelphia decided several years ago to focus on its New York markets; Adelphia runs scattered systems around the country.

"I think it's a combination of Chuck looking for a way to fund Voom and Jimmy looking to hang on," Greenfield said.

What about Malone?

Greenfield also questioned John Malone's role in the possible Adelphia bid.

After the Cablevision board sided with Jimmy Dolan and voted to sell the Voom assets earlier this year, Chuck Dolan booted three board members and replaced them with his own picks, including Malone.

Speaking before Rutledge at the Banc of America confab was Time Warner Cable chief Glenn Britt, who emphasized that the conglom's cable biz doesn't need to grow -- it's already large enough to realize necessary economies of scale.

"But the real thing is, we like the business. If we can buy more cable at a price that makes sense, we think we should do it. If it doesn't make sense, we shouldn't do it," Britt said when asked about Adelphia.

Stand-alone logic

Britt also noted that ultimately separating the cable group into a stand-alone company makes sense because parent Time Warner "likes the mix of businesses it's in. We don't want to completely change the mix of assets in Time Warner and become a giant cable company." A separate entity would allow for expansion in cable, "keeping the same mix."

In the West Side stadium fight, Jimmy Dolan is convinced that the project would cut into the profits of Cablevision's Madison Square Garden by drawing major performers and even some sporting events away from the Garden, which is only a few blocks away from the site. Cablevision's proposal tosses out the idea for a stadium, instead calling for construction of 5,800 apartments, a five-acre park, a hotel with 750 rooms, restaurants, office buildings, an elementary school and a library.

The Jets' bid is favored since the stadium is the linchpin of New York's bid to serve as host city of the 2012 Olympics, and the National Football League said it would award the 2010 Super Bowl to Gotham if the stadium gets built.

Wall Streeters say Cablevision's entry into the stadium fight further reflects the cabler's fractured attention.

Cablevision shares were up 80¢ to close at $28.15 in trading Wednesday, a gain of 2.93%.

(John Dempsey contributed to this report.)

Chaos rules Cablevision

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117920311&categoryid=18

Posted: Wed., Mar. 30, 2005, 5:32pm PT


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The Truth

I Hate To Say It But Voom Is A Disaster. A Year And A Half After They Started Putting In Their Defective Equipment In Peoples Homes And Spending Billions Of Dollars On This Business They Only Have 40 Thoushand Subs.

The Truth Is At Least 30% Of Their Equipment Is Doa - They Have All Kinds Of Software And Hardware Problems That Make It A Nightmare To Install Effectively, And The Company Wastes Millions On Ludacris Shipping And Scheduling Practices.

I Install 40 Voom Systems A Week, And Half Of The Customers Have It Deinstalled Within A Month Mainly Because They Can't Get Any Or All Local Channels.

Vooms Picture Is Great When You Can Get It To Work. It's The Best Out There Right Now, However The Sad Truth Is 98% Of Satellite Customers Want All There Locals. Until Voom Can Offer The Locals At Least In Sd They Will Never Make It In The Tv Business.

Why Do People Love The Major Networks So Much? Commercials, Commercials, Commercials.
 
will0471 said:
It seems highly contradictory that Mr. Dolan, who is the Chairman of the Board of Cablevision, the company that currently owns VOOM, filed a petition with the FCC to block the sale of something that Cablevision (again, the company of which he is Chairman of the Board of) SIGNED A LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT TO DO. AND, one, which I might add, the Board of Directors had to approve the signing of in the first place.

A highly irregular action to be taken and one which I would personally view as desperate.

It's only logical that Chuck Dolan file against the sale. He "founded" Voom with a Cablevision Board that approved the start-up. Then Chuck left the running of things to another board run by James. James has conflicting desires on using Cablevision's assets for his dreams and so he moved to tank Voom as soon as strategically possible. As soon as the James D. Cablevision Board acted, Chuck rushed back in with his Cablevision Board in an attempt to retain Voom.

It's seems much like the story of a divorcing couple. The spurned spouse sells off the prized possession of the other for next to nothing. In this story the screwed over spouse rushes home to stop the sale.
 
James never really ran Voom, it was the other brother-Tom?-that did run it with his father.
 
ancalagonlt81 said:
I Hate To Say It But Voom Is A Disaster. A Year And A Half After They Started Putting In Their Defective Equipment In Peoples Homes And Spending Billions Of Dollars On This Business They Only Have 40 Thoushand Subs.

I have had V* for over a year with very, very few problems! In 2001 I had E* for a short time and got their "Dishplayer xxx" (don't remember the exact model number), and I actually was part of a class action law suite against E* for that hunk of junk!! It would lock-up at least once a day, and E* paid out Millions to its customers for that disaster! Ever since that time I have determined that E* equipment was not worth much anyway!
 
socalpanman said:
It's only logical that Chuck Dolan file against the sale. He "founded" Voom with a Cablevision Board that approved the start-up. Then Chuck left the running of things to another board run by James. James has conflicting desires on using Cablevision's assets for his dreams and so he moved to tank Voom as soon as strategically possible. As soon as the James D. Cablevision Board acted, Chuck rushed back in with his Cablevision Board in an attempt to retain Voom.

Based on some of the stories posted in this forum, Charles Dolan has been running Voom the entire time because it was his "baby". Most of the rest of Cablevision was run by his son James Dolan who had more of an interest in Madison Square Garden, the Knicks and the Rangers. When the losses from the Charles Dolan run Voom continued to significantly hurt the Cablevision bottom line and the stock price, the Cablevision board voted it shut it down. I don't understand why a smart businessman such as Charles Dolan would have been shocked by the shutdown action, the writing was on the wall. A smart businessman should have known how the rest of Cablevision Board felt especially about something as prized as Voom appears to be to Charles Dolan. As Chairman of the Board of Cablevision with the power to control the Board, this situation is even more puzzling.
 
Ancalagowit81 is a phony and a fraud. In this post he portraying himself as an installer who does 40 VOOM installs a week. In another string he claims he has done thousands of D* installs. BS In a different string he claims to be a D* CSR who is tired of all the whining customers. In reality he is a nut case and "Provocatuer" who dabbles in fantasy. In other recent posts he assumes other ficticious roles either with this user name or another. You can spot him because he has a distictive and unusual writing style. He capitalizes every word.
 

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