# Rainbow to pull plug on Voom



## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Multichannel News reports that Rainbow Media Holdings is shutting down Voom HD.

"In a memo to employees Thursday, Rainbow president and CEO Joshua Sapan blamed the (Dish law)suit and the scenario with Dish Network for leading to the demise of Voom HD domestically. The Voom HD operation, which includes two networks, will keep its international business running where it reaches 32 million subscribers in 36 countries."

Full story: http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6624094.html?desc=topstory


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## space86 (May 4, 2007)

Voom goes Boom. I really liked Voom HD when it was on E*, my 
favorite channel was Monsters HD, Voom will be missed by me and a lot of people.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I've said this before in other threads... I liked Voom, but I didn't like all of Voom... and I believed they watered down their 15 channels by having things so spread out. A 10 channel suite that also included IFC, WE, and AMC + Monsters, Rave, and 5 others would have been a rock-solid HD suite that every provider would have wanted.

Instead we got 15 channels spread out and haven't seen IFC, WE, or AMC yet (though I think some carries have those maybe).

Also, they seemed willing to sell 1 or 2 HD channels internationally to get business but refused to let Dish carry anything less than their 15... and no other carrier would do that except Cablevision who was a part-owner along with Dish.

IF Voom had agreed to either sell Dish the 5 or so channels they wanted OR was willing to re-invent themselves as I and others had suggested... they could have remained viable, been more attractive to other carriers, and we all could have had a lot more nice HD to watch.


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## EXTACAMO (Apr 7, 2007)

Bummer, I really thought that something could have been worked out. I enjoyed Monsters HD when they had great un-cut classic content. Hopefully someone will bring back a channel like that. And no Chiller with its extended ShamWow commercials ain't cuttin it. :nono2:


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The saga ends ...

I hope the content ends up on another channel. A "Voom 5" would be nice.

I suppose the lawsuit against DISH will continue with Rainbow seeking damages for DISH dropping the channels earlier this year, the loss of revenue (although Voom had more subscribers via Cablevision than DISH when dropped). Rainbow will probably increase the damages they are demanding.

It was a good idea ... just not a successful one. Not all good ideas succeed.


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## grog (Jul 3, 2007)

Yes... It's over. :beatdeadhorse:

Time to move on.... 



James Long said:


> The saga ends ...
> 
> I hope the content ends up on another channel. A "Voom 5" would be nice.
> 
> ...


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## rhambling (Dec 19, 2007)

i liked voom hd, especially when they ran the same crap over and over again. 

only took about 2 weeks for to me watch all of their crap


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## projectorguru (Mar 5, 2007)

its about time, thank you


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## TechnoCat (Sep 4, 2005)

Let's keep in mind that Dish pulled Voom due to alleged contract violations to begin with. Voom's case seemed very weak to me back then; you can't fail to live up to your side of a contract and then try to hold the other party to their side.


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## Reaper (Jul 31, 2008)

Monsters HD was my favorite channel ever, so much so that I dropped Dish when they dropped VOOM. I kept hoping that at least the movie channels would show up on DirecTV or even FiOS. I wonder how hard Rainbow tried to make new agreements, or were they just eyeing the $1B prize if they win their litigation with Dish?

Maybe some day we'll get some of this content back on individual channels that are more palatable to carriers than the 15 channel suite was.


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## tedb3rd (Feb 2, 2006)

HD is still a young technology. Others will pick up the 'slack' and those channels will be replaced with something as good (if not better).


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## Reaper (Jul 31, 2008)

tedb3rd said:


> HD is still a young technology. Others will pick up the 'slack' and those channels will be replaced with something as good (if not better).


An all HD all horror movie channel, uncut, uncensored and uninterupted. I don't think that it gets any better than that.


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## ZBoomer (Feb 21, 2008)

Bummer, Voom was some of the highest quality HD we had.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The fish tank channel was better quality HD than Voom ever was via DISH.
The content was less repetitive on Voom.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

EXTACAMO said:


> Bummer, I really thought that something could have been worked out. I enjoyed Monsters HD when they had great un-cut classic content. Hopefully someone will bring back a channel like that. And no Chiller with its extended ShamWow commercials ain't cuttin it. :nono2:


My wife loves her ShamWOW thank you....  And it's a product of Germany just like me....


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## nitz369 (Dec 15, 2005)

SWEET!!!

Hopefully now we will be done with the whining and complaining threads of how Dish is going to lose all of their customers if they don't put VOOM back up, face it its over now!!!

This should cut down on the extreme amount of duplicates and "wish" lists. If More than the 200 or so people o this forum watched VOOM then Dish obviously would not have dropped it, or tried to figure out a way, but Dish obviously believed it was a complete waste of bandwidth.


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## EXTACAMO (Apr 7, 2007)

Jason Nipp said:


> My wife loves her ShamWOW thank you....  And it's a product of Germany just like me....


Hey, nothin against Germany. That's probably the only country in Europe I'd go through all the aggravation to visit. Would love to drive the Autobahn!


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## clyde sauls (Nov 16, 2007)

If cablevision had really wanted Voom to continue they could have let E* offer it in a standalone pkg for $10 a month. Or they could have got other cable companies, or Directv to carry it. They do own a few other networks. It is easier to let it fold and blame Dish. Unless they did try to offer the voom channels and nobody else wanted it. When Voom started wasnt it just on cablevision and couldnt make it? Dish rescued it until their disagreement. I think they would have been better off to go back and talk to Charlie and let him buy the channels as well. They must have known that this would be the outcome.


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## Kheldar (Sep 5, 2004)

clyde sauls said:


> When Voom started wasnt it just on cablevision and couldnt make it?


No, when Voom started it was just on _Voom_ -- it was a stand-alone satellite service that attempted to compete with D* and E* and after a couple years had less than 50,000 subscribers. So they folded, sold their satellite to E* and added their programming to E*.


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## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

nitz369 said:


> SWEET!!!
> T If More than the 200 or so people o this forum watched VOOM then Dish obviously would not have dropped it, or tried to figure out a way, but Dish obviously believed it was a complete waste of bandwidth.


Im sure that 99.98 % of DIsh Networks customers dont even know this forum exists.
And if you were well read on the whole issue its obvious Voom got dropped because of contract disputes with Voom ..not because of waste of bandwidth.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Reading here, even the biggest fans of Voom will admit that maybe a handful of Voom channels were popular. So if a provider is carrying 15 channels and only 6 are popular, then it could be assumed that there was a waste of bandwidth. IMHO, the contrct dispute allowed Dish to drop the unpopular channels, Voom forced Dish to drop the popular channels. This is based on when the channels were first dropped about 6 remainded actived for a day before they were also pulled.


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## Deke Rivers (Jan 8, 2007)

again thats just opinion..not fact
personally i think a lot of channels are a waste of bandwidth but just because i think so doesnt mean it is ..


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

clyde sauls said:


> If cablevision had really wanted Voom to continue they could have let E* offer it in a standalone pkg for $10 a month. Or they could have got other cable companies, or Directv to carry it. ... Unless they did try to offer the voom channels and nobody else wanted it.


I believe you have hit the nail on the head. Who else wanted Voom's channels? Did ANY other provider carry the channels? Cablevision owned Voom and didn't carry the channels on their cable system immediately.



> When Voom started wasnt it just on cablevision and couldnt make it? Dish rescued it until their disagreement.


21 Voom channels were part of the Voom satellite TV service available from the Rainbow 1 satellite at 61.5. When the Voom satellite service failed DISH picked up the satellite, an uplink center and licenses to use both. The service was defunct. There was some attempt to keep the full service running but that effort failed.

After further negotiation with DISH and agreement was reached for DISH to carry some of the Voom content. That agreement is the center of the ongoing lawsuit. DISH made an investment in Voom (20%) offered to carry the channels (and were the sole carrier in the US) with the understanding that Rainbow would invest in the content on those channels.

Rainbow FAILED to make the required investments. Their initial defense was to include administrative expenses in with the money designated for content. Then they changed their complaint to claim that Voom was a 21 channel package and DISH's carriage of 15 channels reduced their obligation to spend the full amount.

DISH's first move at the end of 2007 was to announce that the Voom channels along with most but not all other HD channels not available in SD would be available in a "Platinum HD" level package. If Rainbow would have accepted this level placement it would have given Voom the opportunity to survive on a commercial basis. By refusing to accept the placement they sealed their fate.

Voom died because of poor management decisions. The were given a couple of years of life support from DISH but in the end the Voom package of channels only lasted as long as it did because DISH helped them out. Voom was not a commercial success as a satellite carrier and was not a commercial success as a channel package ... thanks to Cablevision management of their asset.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

HobbyTalk said:


> ... if a provider is carrying 15 channels and only 6 are popular, then it could be assumed that there was a waste of bandwidth.


Agreed. Channels can be a waste of bandwidth regardless of how much spare bandwidth is available for other channels. I'd object to them being called a waste of "much needed" bandwidth ... because the much needed part IS based on the other space available ... but any channel can waste it's own bandwidth.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

James Long said:


> The fish tank channel was better quality HD than Voom ever was via DISH.
> The content was less repetitive on Voom.


I got my HDTV too late to enjoy the fish tank My favorite VOOM chanmel was EquatorHD. Perhaps Planet Green will pick a few shows.


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