Reality Check Observation!

[JoeSp]

Now that the news is out about E*'s purchase of hardware assets from VOOM lets really look at the deal.

1) Rainbow 1, frequences at that location and the new satellite uplink center.

Without hardware how will VOOM services continue to their customer base? Will E* provide use to Mr. Dolan for contiunance of VOOM programing? Will E* not just replace its own services at 61.5 location because their satellite is having early failure problems? If there is no agreement to share or use space jointly then VOOM as it is will be gone.

2) Does VOOM really have another uplink center?

Question has been asked and not answered--I believe the one in SD is the new one that is supposed to be MPEG4 ready. VOOM has been saying all along that they would be moving to MPEG4 this spring or summer. How else could VOOM expand to 70 HD channels? Where would those channels come from -- upconverted SD? And just how long could VOOM last without providing LIL in some form or another? Does everyone hear forget the FCC requirement of LIL? Bottom line if there is no other uplink center than there is no more VOOM.

3) Does anyone here really understand how much Mr. Dolan and Mr. Ergan really despise Mr. Murdoch?

Could there really be an agreement between Mr.Dolan and Mr. Ergan to continue VOOM reconfigured with less HD channels but more content (Shrink 21 to say 6 or 7) and continue VOOM as the HD end of E*'s offerings? Both men would get what they want. Mr. Dolan could continue his HD dreams and Mr. Ergan could beat Mr. Rupert to the punch. Come on guys, Mr. Dolan is 78! God has blessed him with long life and great success but a younger man is going to have to carry this banner. Could that be Charlie?
If there is no agreement than there is no more VOOM>

4) Is there any chance of the FCC killing this sale?

Let's be realistic, Cablevision is not giving anymore money- period! It is either sale or squash they are not going to continue VOOM with their money! That 200 mil from Charlie is going to Cablevision not Mr. Dolan. The FCC does not kill hardware sells. Especially since the SEC has already put the kabosh on spinning VOOM off as a seperate company. Let's see, SEC says no, Cablevision says no, Dish buys hardware, FCC says OK -- no VOOM!

5) Is there a best chance scenario?

Only if number 3 is true. Mr Dolan could purchase RBDS media and reconfigure VOOM to be the leading HD content provider out there. He could condense those 21 channels into 6 or 7 (as I said before) and he could partner up with Mr. Ergan to provide VOOM as the largest and best HD provider out there. (Are you hearing this Mr. Cuban?) By shrinking down the number of channels and only being a content provider Mr. Dolan could enter into a long term aggreement with E* to provide VOOM only to E* under a contract simular to what the NFL and Mr. Cuban has done. E* then would have a leg up on Mr. Rupert.

Mr. Dolan could continue his HD dreams, Mr. Ergan would get more bandwith (at a location that he desperately needs help at) and he could use the extra space freed up to offer more LIL (hopefully HD LIL).

6) Is there a knight on the white horse for VOOM?

Only Mr Dolan SR. I doubt that people like Mr. Cuban, Microsoft, Time-Warner, Disney are going to be interested on a content provider without a current customer base. If he choses to continue VOOM as a content provider to both E*, D* and Cablevision and he is willing to use his money only to continue the RDBS media company as a seperate entity from Cablevision than VOOM has a chance. Make that choice no and VOOM is dead on the vine.

Reality Check is done.

 

[Indy]

Does Voom really have a second up-link center? is your question. Where do you think the programming has been coming from? Yes they do have a up-link center I believe in Jericho New York.

Then you ask about the satellite. Voom has a valid lease on AMC 6 KU satellite for 11 transponders.
Granted some equipment swaps and dish re-pointing will be required. The LNB's will have to be swapped out for a 10750 MHz linear LNB and the dish re-pointed. The current STB is capable of both linear and circular signal polarity configurations and different local oscillator frequencies to drive the linear LNB's.

I think the Voom programming will be simulcast from Rainbow 1 and AMC 6 while the dishes are re pointed and the LNB's swapped. This is the next logical step if Voom is not going away.

 

[kelljc]

I agree iith Indy, Only for the Fact: Not one word about " AMC6" and it's 13 Tps. and again It would be a very simple change for Voom if they contiue with Service. Plus they get 200 mil . nice bag of seed money.you do have to remember these transpmders were LEASED from AMC6since oct..

 

[vurbano]

But Dolan has to sell cablevision also I think, and find venture partners.

 

[kelljc]

But don't you think we have to many " What if's ": "might Be's", but the fact still on the table is "AMC6": "question", Why would they lease " AMC6", in November, and Sell " 61.5 " in Jan." just to lose more money???. when Cablevision wanted to get rid of Rainbow1 and Voom. before November?

 

[JoeSp]

Plus they get 200 mil . nice bag of seed money.you do have to remember these transpmders were LEASED from AMC6since oct..so Voom was probably paying a penalty fee for having them but "dark" Voom can go out of business pay a penalty clause amt. and walk away from AMC6 i would guess

That 200 mil is going to Cablevision and NOT VOOM or Charles Dogan SR. The reality check is that in order for VOOM to continue even with an uplink facility in New York and AMC6 is to find deep pockets. Those assets belong currently to Cablevision. They were shared between Cablevision and VOOM.

VOOM's new operation center was in South Dakota and it was the one that was going to be MPEG4 compatible. VOOM's satellite was Rainbow 1. Why would Cablevision sell off the assets that were going to provide the future for VOOM and then continue to pay out of the pocket on leases that were going to cost them hundreds of millions of dollars to continue to use for VOOM? VOOM was only going to lease TPs on AMC6. They do not own that satelitte and without Cablevision's money they can not pay for the TPs.

The assets sold to Dish were the 2 year old high power satellite with spots and the new uplink facility with MPEG4 capability. This was the future for VOOM. Cablevision sold them off. As for the AMC6 TPs, they are useless if Cablevision refuses to allow VOOM access to their uplink center in New York. Allow access means paying for it out of Cablevision's pockets! VOOM currently does not have any pockets.

Are there folks who can not read and comprehend at the same time? Cablevision is not giving VOOM anymore money period! The well is dry and unless Dolan Sr. wants to cash in his retirement package VOOM's well is dry. 26,000 subscribers will not give Voom enough money to run a week! Unless there is a backroom deal with Mr. Ergan VOOM's days are numbered.

 

[kelljc]

And how do you Know all of this INformation??. do you Work for CableVison, ??
it Seems as tho we have a lot of Experts about Voom and CableVison, if this is true they should Declare yourSelf as Such, That way if the 26000 sub's read anything on this site they would know the real truth:, " remember we didn't have sex ":::
Addon: Buy the Way you can always go to C-band, if you want the best that HD has to offer. for about 17.00 month , for each of the Movie Services,

 

[kelljc]

How do you Know this information?

That 200 mil is going to Cablevision and NOT VOOM or Charles Dogan SR. The reality check is that in order for VOOM to continue even with an uplink facility in New York and AMC6 is to find deep pockets. Those assets belong currently to Cablevision. They were shared between Cablevision and VOOM.

VOOM's new operation center was in South Dakota and it was the one that was going to be MPEG4 compatible. VOOM's satellite was Rainbow 1. Why would Cablevision sell off the assets that were going to provide the future for VOOM and then continue to pay out of the pocket on leases that were going to cost them hundreds of millions of dollars to continue to use for VOOM? VOOM was only going to lease TPs on AMC6. They do not own that satelitte and without Cablevision's money they can not pay for the TPs.

The assets sold to Dish were the 2 year old high power satellite with spots and the new uplink facility with MPEG4 capability. This was the future for VOOM. Cablevision sold them off. As for the AMC6 TPs, they are useless if Cablevision refuses to allow VOOM access to their uplink center in New York. Allow access means paying for it out of Cablevision's pockets! VOOM currently does not have any pockets.

Are there folks who can not read and comprehend at the same time? Cablevision is not giving VOOM anymore money period! The well is dry and unless Dolan Sr. wants to cash in his retirement package VOOM's well is dry. 26,000 subscribers will not give Voom enough money to run a week! Unless there is a backroom deal with Mr. Ergan VOOM's days are numbered.

Nice Reading?
buy how on earth do you know this information. Do you Work For Cablevision, or "Dish". or just read the Stockmarket new's, on "Saturday & Sunday ", didn't know they were published on those day's. or What Web site can all of the rest of the Voom'er Read this same Info. " Amc6 " liquidation", and Uplink liquidation "/? Thanks

 

[uboatcmdr]

Okay, try this one on for size... As has been said over & over Voom has space rented on another sat, and a second uplink center being built so there is a chance they could move operations over to them and continue to operate. But to continue service they need operating capital and to reduce their loses.
Talk now is that CVC is thinking of selling out to Time Warner once Voom is gone. All this is boosting CVC's stock prices. Publicly Chuck is oppossed to all these sales deals, privately I think he is in hog heaven and pushing these deals forward from behind the scene. See it like this, CVC sells the sat and old uplink center for 200mil, they then sell the rest of Voom to Chuck for say another 100mil (maybe even less as the remaining assets are not worth near as much without the sat & UL center), then CVC sells out to Time Warner. Chuck Sells off his CVC/Time Warner stock at a huge profit and dumps the cash into Voom to fund the changes need to make the service more marketable.
Will it happen this way? Only time will tell. Chuck isn't stupid, he has been around the block a few times and I don't see him giving up without making some kind of real effort to keep his vision afloat.

 

[gutter]

Dish didn't buy the old uplink Center... read the releases. They bought the new one that is almost completed.

 

[thxdan]

Does everyone hear forget the FCC requirement of LIL?

Hrmmm, you got me thinking. Doesn't the FCC's Local-Into-Local requirement only apply to DBS-band providers? If by some crazy chance they do move all their service exclusively to Ku-band AMC-6, is Voom no longer required to supply Local-Into-Local?

They could then re-enter the DBS market and its FCC rules with their Ka-band licenses & satellites that Lockeed was contracted to build, and then provide LIL.

But gosh, even if all that was true, DISH and DirecTV are gonna be providing LIL so many years before Voom --- is it really commercially viable?

No flames please --- just thinking "outside the box". I'm definately not saying this is likely. Just fun to ponder.
-Dan

 

[James Long]

Does everyone hear forget the FCC requirement of LIL?

Either you have or I have. Please provide a reference link to the FCC requirement that you refer to. You seem to be saying that the FCC is requiring LIL service. They are not. It would be interesting reading if you can find a link (and not just hearsay) proving they are. SkyAngel would also be affected.

JL

 

[JoeSp]

This site has hundreds of posts covering the new uplink center being built in South Dakota. The MPEG4 capacity. The coverage of the assets that Dish bought. The currently failing status of E*'s sat at 61.5. The fact that the SEC did NOT approve seperating VOOM from Cablevision allowing VOOM to be a seperate entity and finally -- the infamous memo (no longer available to the public) that stated that Cablevision's pockets to VOOM were zipped up tight!

That the sale of VOOM and related assets was priority numero uno and that Dolan SR. was not happy and was trying to find a way to buy the company himself. E* bought all the new equipment not the equipment that Cablevision currently uses in New York for their own programming.

You want to know all this stuff start reading just like I did. You can go to the Wall Street Journal, CBSFinancial News, or other sites. The info is out there plain and simple. Statements I have made are observations on news presented in the last two days. I just condensed it. Folks want to believe that what they read is not true and so be it.

However, the sale for the new sat (Rainbow 1) and new uplink center (in South Dakota) is going to the FCC. The buyer is Dish not Mr Dolan. I believe in the next few business days the fate of VOOM as a media provider will be announced. Cablevision will not let it hang on the vine long. Every day it cost them not Mr Dolan money. Every day it drags their stock down. Every day it presents a money hole that money goes down and none comes up. Be patient, the answers are closer than you think.

 

[James Long]

In other words, you have no reference for the LIL claim you made.

JL

 

[Indy]

Have you seen the new thread Sean has started? Voom Alive. 3 Days And Counting? Since I hate to doodoo in his thread I will say it here. First of all your kind of jumping the gun but I understand that you are looking for some sort of closure. Sean, I just hope your new thread stays post free of new negative developments and we can enjoy Voom for ever! I know, wishful thinking perhaps but, I'm wishing pretty hard

P.S. The spell check on this board is the dumbest piece of software I have ever encountered! I cut my post and copy over to Out Look Express and do the corrections there. At least that spell check software can figure out what I'm trying to say. You might give it a try!

 

[mdonnelly]

... P.S. The spell check on this board is the dumbest piece of software I have ever encountered! I cut my post and copy over to Out Look Express and do the corrections there. At least that spell check software can figure out what I'm trying to say. You might give it a try!

If the spell checker has to figure out what you're trying to say, then you aren't writing very well.

 

[Indy]

If the spell checker has to figure out what you're trying to say, then you aren't writing very well.

Give me a break! I just had a couple of Beers and my fingers are fatter from bee...er.. water retention! Can't seem to hit the right keys, or at least in the correct order.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

I think that the only LIL requirement is that if the satellite companies are going to add stations from a certain market, they can't be selective in that market. In other words if they are going to carry CBS from Podunk Utah, they HAVE to carry the other networks from Podunk Utah.

 

[James Long]

I think that the only LIL requirement is that if the satellite companies are going to add stations from a certain market, they can't be selective in that market. In other words if they are going to carry CBS from Podunk Utah, they HAVE to carry the other networks from Podunk Utah.

Exactly. Voom has NO REQUIREMENT to carry locals.

JL

 

[BassBlaster]

I'm from Podunk and would love the see the locals go Nation. No matter where I roam, there is no place like Podunk.