Lets just say, voom calls it quits, what happens?

[dankgus]

I am going to ride along with Voom for as long as they last, unless something better comes along of course. But I really like what Voom is doing and don't expect to leave.

I know a lot of us are familiar with Vooms financial situation and exactly how low their subscription numbers really are. Who knows how long Voom is prepared to lose money, 1 year, 2 years, ? However long, they may reach a point of wanting out.

Getting to the topic of my post here. God forbid, once they call it quits, what will happen to our service? Will one of the other satellite companies buy them up and continue providing programming? Will the whole thing just be abandoned? What will happen?? What are your theories or guesses? That is the question most on my mind these days when I read about Vooms financial troubles.

I still feel confident that Voom will beef up advertising and retail locations and pull through. I sure would like it to end up that way.

--Dan

 

[riffjim4069]

Lets just say, voom calls it quits, what happens?

Simple, E* buys them as part of their "HD Expansion with Zero Effort Program" in an attempt to prevent being knocked into obscurity by Cable and D*. Of course, this assume there will finally be compelling HD content two years from now.

 

[Bruce]

Simple, E* buys them as part of their "HD Expansion with Zero Effort Program" in an attempt to prevent being knocked into obscurity by Cable and D*. Of course, this assume there will finally be compelling HD content two years from now.

Uh-oh,I better hook my E* 61.5 Dish back up.

 

[rtt2]

I don't know if E* or D* would want to buy the whole company; VOOM. Just way too much debt associated with it.

Also in all reality what does E* or D* want out of VOOM? The only real things they would want is the satellite that now has 14 years until its end of life and maybe Vooms 11 transponder frequencies.

They have no need for the uplink facility. It would be impractical to buy it anyway because it is connected to Cablevision's Headend and Rainbow Media Networks.

The set-tops and other customer premise equipment has no value so E* or D* would not pay for any of this.

VOOM leases space on a bird from SES Americom and has programming commitments that become invalid if they are sold.

There is really nothing left.

This company is really operating with just one satellite.

 

[Bruce]

Blue-Light Special?

 

[voombot]

if voom calls it quits , i guess we have to moov on

 

[Bruce]

I wonder if they would throw a RAVE.

 

[Indy]

Maybe Castro would buy the whole mess. Satellite is in a pretty good location for Cuba. Does Cuba even have TV broadcasts of their own?

 

[Dvlos]

I think D* or E* would buy V*, assuming Rainbow Media just falls back on it's 3 channels. It would offer an incentive for Voom customers to switch, E* has the most to gain by adding Rainbow 1, and using it to add lots of HD national networks.

 

[Pete In Plano]

Does anyone know how much D* or E* lost in their first years?? How many subs did they have the first couple years?? I have heard that they took a long time to get up and running and get their base up.

 

[mike123abc]

E* could use VOOM's satellite. They could do something dramatic with it since it has 25 spot beams to get HDTV LIL to the top 25 markets or something like that. Rainbow-1 is an overbuilt satellite with a ton of unused features on it. It was built in a way that it could be sold easily if needed (things like the spots are steerable, so it can be moved to a different orbital location).

If Dish were able to get the top 25 market HD locals they would have 50% of the population done, a nice bang for their buck.

 

[Indy]

Dish and D are sooo big in comparison to Voom why would either want the remnants of Voom for their 25k subs? If Voom dies it will be a quiet drowning death with no funeral and no scramble for assets. Voom is no prize for either Dish or D. If Voom does indeed die the reason will be not enough demand for their product and only that. Why spend the capital to acquire something that is not a serious threat to your survival?

 

[Bruce]

Does anyone know how much D* or E* lost in their first years?? How many subs did they have the first couple years?? I have heard that they took a long time to get up and running and get their base up.

E* had 100,000 in its first month,and a million at the end of its first year.

 

[Pete In Plano]

E* had 100,000 in its first month,and a million at the end of its first year.

Man, must have been some busy installers making TONS of $$$$$$

 

[DarrellP]

I'd disconnect my Voom stb's and continue on with my Dish/OTA solution.

 

[rtt2]

http://www.sbca.com/mediaguide/factsfigures.htm


Look at the second box downand you will see the various satellite services growth over the years

 

[randym431]

All I know is I remember when the D* forum worried D* was doomed in its first years. And that Tivo was doomed after its first years. It took tivo a long time to catch on, but even Oprah and Ellen have tivo's now. I'm not worried about Voom's success. Even Wal-mart sells HDtv's now...

 

[rtt2]

All I know is I remember when the D* forum worried D* was doomed in its first years.

I didn't know that many people had internet access back in 1994. For a company that went from 0 to 320,000 in less then a year and then to 1,200,000 in its second year of operation the numbers do not support the claim that D* seemed doomed in the beginning.

Installers had just as much trouble with D* in the beginning because the small dish was a new phenomenon and a learning curve had to be played out. Even accounting for this hiccup D* was a bona-fide success.

 

[randym431]

I'm just going by those forum posts back then. Satellite tv has certainly moved way ahead of cable tv. Our cable compny is choking here and if not for their highspeed internet, they'd be dead. Back then, there were many "the sky is falling" posts concerning D*, or people were afraid D* was going to be bought out and then killed off. Naturally, it never happened. Same with voom doom sayers. If you're going to place bets on vooms demise, I would bet the whole farm (as they say).

(enough of this silly subject)