TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Voom Goes Boom

Re: Voom Goes Boom

J Kelly (jkelly@newsguy.com)
Thu, 03 Mar 2005 15:15:10 -0600

On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 21:35:57 -0800, Mark Crispin
<MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU> wrote:

> On Wed, 2 Mar 2005, J Kelly wrote:

>> I keep hearing a vocal minority whining about not enough HDTV
>> available. If there are so many people interested in HDTV, explain
>> how Voom only managed to convince around 40,000 suckers into signing
>> up for their service. Now Voom has gone Boom.

> Voom's service started out with a hefty (several hundred dollars)
> investment required in equipment that would not be useful for anything
> else.

> Voom did not carry any local channels; you had to have a separate OTA
> antenna to tune in local digital (or *shudder* analog) channels.

> Voom didn't carry very many of the popular cable/satellite channels.
> Voom had more HDTV offerings, but in every other respect they were
> vastly inferior to comparable offerings from other satellite
> providers.

> Voom was not a good choice for people with multiple sets, or for people
> who have RVs.

> When Voom cut their prices, they did so to the extent that clearly
> indicated desparation and a company going under.

> Bottom line: high prices, inferior choices compared to other satellite
> services, and a company that from the onset didn't look like it was going
> to survive.

> -- Mark --

> http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
> Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
> Si vis pacem, para bellum.

I figured from day one they would go bust. Now there is a big fight
among the Dolan family to keep it alive. As you say, without locals
in HD, it is screwed. And with limited capacity at a crappy DBS slot
it can't survive even with local-into-local since many on the west
coast are goign to have trouble seeing a slot that is so low on the
horizon. And now they went and sold their satellite that was at 61.5
to Echostar. Voom seems doomed, even if they can convince Cablevision
to spin it off.

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