Satellite Updates and VOOM

Cant get Fios down in my neck of the woods. Uverse country..

Why do you like Fios so much?

I have zippo experience with Fios
The picture quality is outstanding, the most HD, the Triple Play bundle makes it an excellent value, it is reliable as any product or service we have ever used (2-years without one second of outage...TV, phone or broadband). Except for the so-so DVR (we purchased a Tivo) it's just a wonderful product if you can it in your area.
 
The picture quality is outstanding, the most HD, the Triple Play bundle makes it an excellent value, it is reliable as any product or service we have ever used (2-years without one second of outage...TV, phone or broadband). Except for the so-so DVR (we purchased a Tivo) it's just a wonderful product if you can it in your area.

Fios your sole provider now?

Sounds great. Ive had Uverse for two years along with Dish and Direc.
Ive tried to replace Dish with Uverse.

Great tripple play like Fios. Uverse has lots of HD. Love the Vod! However.
Stream limitations and HD quality still not up to par.

Ive had several issues in the beggining with Uverse. Lots of technical problems.
But for a year its been basically problem free.

I just cant say goodbye to dish because it is still a superior service.
Dvr blows out all competition. Vip 722

Plus Dish provides the better HD picture.

While watching HD vod or recored HD on Uverse the picture shimmers when too much action is on the screen.

Not sure what it is? but i dont have that on dish??
 
You did not answer my question to you.

Did you ever have VOOM, or ever watch it?

A simple yes or no, that should be easy enough for you.
I tried.. but watching the same movie 2-3 times aday was not my cup of tea
 
I guess I just don't understand why VOOM gets blasted for running repeats, but every other channel which does it all the time and with inferior image quality gets a pass.
 
I guess I just don't understand why VOOM gets blasted for running repeats, but every other channel which does it all the time and with inferior image quality gets a pass.

It sounds like Voom was strong armed to a degree.
Im not saying Voom is guilt free here.

They(Voom) could have stayed afloat while fighting dish..
Makes no sense that they just closed shop.

I do think that theres a better way to handle things than to just pull programming
that people like off the air because of a dispute.

losing Voom was a loss for all.:(
 
Fios your sole provider now?
Absolutely...althought we would dump the overpriced phone service if we didn't need reliable fax service (can't rely on Viatalk). My folks have U-Verse...it's OK for them (don't need blazing internet speeds or multiple HD streams), but I would have serious problems with it. U-Verse should have run the last leg of fiber to the home.
 
The people that had it watched it. It failed because not enough people had it.:rolleyes:

ex voomer
I loved some of the VOOM channels, but VOOM died because of the horrible affiliation agreement DISH signed with VOOM. Nobody watched it because VOOM has no incentive to market any of the VOOM channels individually to cable and satellite operators...and they surely didn't have room for the entire 15-channel lineup. In a nutshell, DISH agreed to pay a premium price for VOOM in 2005 and were later unhappy with the payment arrangement in 2008 when HD was no longer a premium service. Plus, the affiliation agreement was so sweet (in VOOM's favor) that VOOM had no incentive to break-up their 15-channel lineup or aggressively market the VOOM product to others since they would be required to offer similar terms to DISH. Needless to say, in addition to getting the Rainbow-1 satellite on-the-cheap, DISH was hoping to get some licensing money back from their 20% ownership in VOOM HD. In other words...Charlie was hoping the affiliation agreement would ultimately lead to cheap programming as others helped foot the bill for VOOM in the form of licensing fees. After all, Rainbow Media successfullly mass marketed channels like AMC, IFC and WE...so he fully expected to use VOOM HD for a competitive advantage when VOOM HD started rolling-out in various quantities to cable and satellite.

Meanwhile, nobody had space for VOOM's 15-channel HD lineup and they certainly didn't want to pay $4-$6 for each and every HD customer. Likewise, the VOOM product could not be offered in a separate tier, a la carte, or for less than 15-years since VOOM would be required to offer DISH, under the affiliation agreement, similar or better terms. VOOM decided it was simply a more profitable business strategy to bleed DISH under the existing contract. After all, DISH got the old Rainbow-1 satellite on the cheap so they can pay out-the-nose for VOOM HD. Charlie was not very unhappy with thier payment obligation under the affiliation agreement and demanded a better deal. Whether DISH illegally terminated the agreement or VOOM failed to meet the spend requirement is now for the courts to decide. I argue that it simply makes no sense for VOOM not to meet their obligations under this contract because it would have "paid off handsomely" in future years...regardless if VOOM became popular or not.

Anyway, based on VOOM's court filings here is the payment arrangement (my estimate and not to the penny). The key point is that by 2019 DISH would obligated to pay more than 840 million dollars to VOOM under the terms of the affiliation agreement (again, based on VOOM's projected figures). This $6.43 is probably what DISH is paying for the Starz or Showtime premium channel packages. Additionally, under the penetration requirement VOOM HD was to be offered to at least 93% of all HD customers...so it had to be part of DISH's basic HD or "essential" package.

$3.25 - 2005 (20,000 HD customers)
$3.48 - 2006
$3.71 - 2007 (1.3 Million HD customers)
$3.94 - 2008
$4.17 - 2009
$4.40 - 2010 (5 Million HD customers ???)
$4.60 - 2011
$4.83 - 2012
$5.06 - 2013
$5.30 - 2014
$5.55 - 2015
$5.76 - 2016
$6.00 - 2017
$6.22 - 2018
$6.43 - 2019 (estimate 11+ Million HD customer - 93% pentration requirement)

$6.43 x 11M = 70M per month or 840M per year

Also, does anyone know how many HD customers DISH currently has? For argument sake, let's assume there are currently 5 million HD customers.

(5M (customers) x .93 (penetration requirement)) x ($4.40 (subscription fee) x 12 (months) = $245 million dollars that DISH would currently be required to pay VOOM during 2010. Offhand, I cannot see why VOOM would not want to meet their spend requirement (100M prorated) and they would have already met the $500 million total spend requirmenet on VOOM HD. Again, these figures are just rough estimates...but it should demonstrate why both parties acted the way they did.
 
Offhand, I cannot see why VOOM would not want to meet their spend requirement (100M prorated) and they would have already met the $500 million total spend requirmenet on VOOM HD. Again, these figures are just rough estimates...but it should demonstrate why both parties acted the way they did.

I am inclined to believe that Cablevision was doing cost cutting, and someone did not know what the commitments were at VOOM and started cutting costs. I think Dish was lying in wait for any contract default, and as soon as they found one they dropped VOOM.

Dish probably went into the contract thinking VOOM was going to be sold to a lot of different companies and Dish would get 20% back via their ownership interest. It was going to be a revenue neutral venture since everyone would have VOOM, Dish would get a 20% cut and offset their annual payments.

VOOM never sold to other US cable companies (outside of the parent Cablevision).
 
I am inclined to believe that Cablevision was doing cost cutting, and someone did not know what the commitments were at VOOM and started cutting costs. I think Dish was lying in wait for any contract default, and as soon as they found one they dropped VOOM.

Dish probably went into the contract thinking VOOM was going to be sold to a lot of different companies and Dish would get 20% back via their ownership interest. It was going to be a revenue neutral venture since everyone would have VOOM, Dish would get a 20% cut and offset their annual payments.

VOOM never sold to other US cable companies (outside of the parent Cablevision).
That's certainly possible and it would not surprise me if that happened. However, it does not explain why VOOM HD would continue to pursue this issue in the courts if they discovered they did not meet the spend obligation postmortem - they would simply be blowing through millions of dollars in legal fees as the discovery and deposition proceses have already produced more than 2.5 million pages of artifacts. VOOM apparently believes they are right and will prevail in trial or else the contracts (preliminary agreement in April 2005 and final affiliation agreement in Nov 2005) were poorly written. Perhaps the agreements were so poorly written and vague that it now comes down to a matter of what both parties understood - which is why they are pouring through emails, correspondence, and meeting minutes.

Regardless, I still feel this was a "bad agreement", both parties are culpable in some fashion for the demise of VOOM, and that Cablevision will not reinvest in VOOM should they win this case - it's simply a money grab.
 
The people that had it watched it. It failed because not enough people had it.:rolleyes:

ex voomer
ROFLMAO

No sh!t!

Isn't that the case for just about everything? Of course people who have something like it. That is why they have it. The determining factor for any successful product is the number of people who have it, not whether or not the few that have it actually like it. There is a reason why some products attract few people, including VOOM.
 
i think rainbow still has those ka-band license's i cannot find anything on them being sold although articles of the voom shutdown said they where going to be anyone know anything more about them
 
There still is not a HD Music channel that can boast this now...
 

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i think rainbow still has those ka-band license's i cannot find anything on them being sold although articles of the voom shutdown said they where going to be anyone know anything more about them
I thought all their ka-band licenses were transfered along with the sale of Rainbow-1 (VOOM's satellite), Uplink center(s), and various other odds and ends. But it's been 5-years...and I don't recall the details. I'll have to look through the VOOM Archive. Update: the presale speculation mentioned the ka-band licenses being part of the sale to EchoStar, but I can't find any details of the actual sale. Additionally, VOOM paid $$$ to break their contract with Lockheed to build several ka-band satellites.
 
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That's certainly possible and it would not surprise me if that happened. However, it does not explain why VOOM HD would continue to pursue this issue in the courts if they discovered they did not meet the spend obligation postmortem - they would simply be blowing through millions of dollars in legal fees as the discovery and deposition proceses have already produced more than 2.5 million pages of artifacts. VOOM apparently believes they are right and will prevail in trial or else the contracts (preliminary agreement in April 2005 and final affiliation agreement in Nov 2005) were poorly written. Perhaps the agreements were so poorly written and vague that it now comes down to a matter of what both parties understood - which is why they are pouring through emails, correspondence, and meeting minutes.

Regardless, I still feel this was a "bad agreement", both parties are culpable in some fashion for the demise of VOOM, and that Cablevision will not reinvest in VOOM should they win this case - it's simply a money grab.

Well the preliminary injunction was denied by the judge with fairly strong language saying VOOM was not likely to win. Perhaps VOOM has found a new angle of attack. It has been quite a while since I read the thing, but I seem to remember that instead of VOOM paying its own overhead costs they were paying CVC a fee. It was a cost savings move by CVC to supposedly use the same personel in both companies. Echostar audits supposedly revieled that the G&A overhead charges were a fat profit to CVC and did not represent fair cost to VOOM. Since CVC was overcharging VOOM, VOOM was not getting the correct amount of money that was supposed to be invested in programming. I of course do not know how it will turn out. But, I doubt that VOOM will get a billion or two.
 
Any Ka licenses that Rainbow had would likely be forfeit for failure to build satellites to use them. Similar problems are rumored to be coming to DIRECTV with some of its licenses.
 
i really missed VOOM channels as RUSH,MONSTER, KINGFU,RAVE CHS.. damn was ALLL AWSOME & NOT FORGOTTEN!
wish is anyway can get it back :(
 
Apparently those that had it didn't watch it either. :p Which is why the providers dropped them.
Other than ESPN2, Tennis Channel and the movie premiums, Voom was pretty much the only channels I watched...

Treasure, Equator, Gallery, FilmFest, World Cinema, and Rave were my favorites. (Those that liked Voom had their own list of favorites). Sure, the schedule was a bit too repetitive, but new stuff premiered often enough for me. Hell, most of our current HD channels repeat too frequently.

My Dish Service just hasn't been the same since May 2008. Voom was something very special, and to me, most of the commercial channels we have today are just crap. So many show 6 to 12 hours of the same show. Spike, today, and apparently every weekday, airs 5 hours of CSI and then 4 hours of The Unit. I'm sure some people like that, but dang!
 

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