Wow, what a backhanded compliment. The sick thing is that you actual mean it, you are being sincere.
Dish has been stomped out by DirecTV, Uverse, FIOS, and others, so they are pretty down and out, but saying VOOM is the best thing that ever happened to Dish is a slap in the face.
Voom's days were over long ago. They shot themselves in the foot even moreso in 2007. Sure, they were good years ago, before other HD channels existed, but they died out at least by late 2007. Don't get me wrong, I loved Monsters HD before it turned for the worse, but what about the other dozen channels? They were crap as far back as I remember. Sure, there was the occasional good programming (even channels like Ovation have had their day in the sun), but they should have consolidated down to about three channels. 10-15 channels in today's environment of that stuff would be insane.
Good riddance to them for being so hard headed and not allowing Dish, or other carriers for that matter, to offer only five of the channels.
That's a very interesting take on the matter. I feel that both sides did their fair share to kill VOOM. The biggest stinker in its demise was the Affiliation Agreement:
- It locked EchoStar into paying an escallating premium price for a entire 15-channel VOOM HD lineup for 15 years, for each and every HD customer. Not a bad deal in May of 2005, but the contract quickly turned into an anchor when HD was no longer a premium service (2007), the HD subscriber-base had grown quite large, and VOOM (unliked the mass-marketing machine behind AMC, IFC and WE) showed no signs of breaking-up the 15 channel lineup nor offering Dish Network more favorable terms. In the long run, E* decided it was less expensive to terminate the contract and litigate this matter in the courts than it was to pay VOOM for the remaining 12+ years. It was a good business decision, but a horrible way to conduct business.
- The affiliation agreeement was so good (in VOOM's favor) they decided to maintain the status quo and keep the entire 15-channel lineup in tact (creating a pseudo exclusive contract) and not market the VOOM channels individually, or in smaller packages, on merit. Management at VOOM made a business decision to bleed E* for the next 12-years. Although it would cost VOOM in excess of $300 million during the first 3-years, the big payola was in receiving huge subscriber fees the next 12+ years from each and every Dish Network HD subscriber. Just like E*, it was a good business decision to keep VOOM in tact, but a horrible business model.
In my mind, both parties are culpable when it comes to killing VOOM...and we, the the customers, got screwed. But which party will prevail in the courtroom? Well, it's EchoStar if you believe press releases and court filings, and it is VOOM if you believe their press releases and court filings. Personally, I would pay extra to receive the VOOM channels, but I do not feel others should pay 1 cent toward VOOM programming. Of course, since I am an a la carte advocate, I also believe that I shouldn't be forced to subsidize 85% of the "cable favorites" I don't want in my channel lineup...just so I can watch a small handful of channels conveniently placed in the most expensive programming package.
Anyway, wee shall see what Rainbow has is store for potential subscribers in early 2009, and we will see the courtroom fireworks starting in August 2009.
BTW, has anyone noticed now Dish Network has tanked after dumping VOOM back in May (reported back-to-back subscriber defections and increased churn)? Also, Rainbow has been taking a beating since the VOOM affiliation agreement was terminated (Greg Moyer recently left VOOM, and this was probably the 3rd wave of layoffs at VOOM). If Karma is any indicator, both parties will continue to suffer until this matter is resolved. As much as I enjoyed VOOM programming, it doesn't mean I am wearing blinders in this case.
