VOOM Goes BOOM - update Dish Drops all 15 VOOM Channels

[jansan]

In the beginning, E* offering VOOM HD Networks was a premium. It was a tool for savvy customers who didn't mind spending extra for these services. They were at the time high-end customers. Just like the same people who would spend extra to get Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings, etc.

Now, E* needs a serious plan.
Are they going to become a price service? No.
Are they going to start bundling services? No. They are not a telco. No infrastructure in place.
Is HD service becoming a commodity? Yes.
Are they going to enter into exclusive agreements with content providers? Only Voom which seems to be ending at this minute.
Are they spending several dollars to keep existing customers? They must.
Do they have a marketing plan? Please let me know.

I feel for the retailers who are trying to sell E* service. Almost a bait and switch yesterday. I am anxious to find out their new marketing plan.

[abricko]

It's time to re-org the 9000's, E* channel line up is messy!

I liked that ALL the *real* HD channels were in the 9000s it made for an easier time to browse. The favorites list "All HD" includes HD PPV and other Sports HD crap I don't sub to so browsing takes longer.

Regarding VOOM, I liked many of the channels, with recent channel additions I find that I watch them less. The channels they kept are good and if it leaves us with more space to keep adding channels until they can get their new birds up, I'm for it. I'll bet when they added all those channels they were really maxing out the system and PQ was probably suffering on some channels (I wasn't able to verify, watching via Sling) lets hope this removal helps in many ways.

[Scott Greczkowski]

I feel for the retailers who are trying to sell E* service. Almost a bait and switch yesterday. I am anxious to find out their new marketing plan.

Team Summit is this week (Team Summit is Dish Network yearly retailer conferance / pep rally / dog and pony show) and SatelliteGuys will be there.

Its going to be interesting thats for sure.

[tigerfan33]

I am anxious to find out their new marketing plan.

Oppose to their old one.

Never had one looks like never will. Marketing and communication are two things Dish does not have. You think Dish would learn it's lesson on how to market and talk to each other within.

[Smith, P.]

The only thing I can think of is that they have been monitoring the usage of the voom channels for awhile, and decided that the few viewers that actually watched them were expendable, if they decided to quit over voom.

I dont have any proof that they have been doing this, but it would be quite easy to put something in the firmware of the ViP receivers to do so, and beam the results back with the nightly phone home.

Removing channels without a PR or a warning is BAD BUSINESS in my opinion.

They DO - DVR sends "stb_health" XML file each week, it include a lot of info, particulary:
<channelUsageTV1>155|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</channelUsageTV1>

[gatekeeper]

This is pure. Speculation of course but here is something dish could do They dropped 10 voom channels ok.Let's. Say dish. Takes combines some of those channels together on one channel. EXample. put. Animation with. Family/ treasure/gallery/ filmfest/voom movies. Etc. This. Could work and free up more. Space for national hd. They could rename them as. Well

[Weezknight]

Service A offers: Ultra HD, Family Room HD, Gameplay HD, and Treasure HD.
Service B offers: Bravo HD, Disney HD, Travel Channel HD, and Cartoon Network HD.

The average customer is not aware of the lack of ANY (or at least hardly any) HD content on half of service B; but service B still sounds better because of brand recognition. Service B is more sell-able to the hoi polloi. If we want to attract NEW customers to our service, we need to try and lure with a chocolate bar, not brussle sprouts.

They also have to realize it will piss off some of the existing customers, but they probably figure they can attract more than they will loose with the change in programing.

This is exactly the case here. While the Voom channels were "exclusives" in a sense, they don't offer the brand-name programming that people are looking for. When the early adopters got their HDTV's they were looking for compelling HD programming, but now that John Q. Public can afford to go out and get an HDTV all they want is to be able to watch the shows they know in HD.

This is the reason why E* will always put more emphasis on LiL rollouts instead of national channels, because more people watch Lost, Grey's Anatomy, ER, CSI, etc...

This is also the reason that E* has no problems cutting out the Voom networks in exchange for the channels rolled out yesterday. The average American family would rather have the Disney channels in HD, than have the generic sounding "Family Room" channel.

[Jeffro34tx]

This is pure. Speculation of course but here is something dish could do They dropped 10 voom channels ok.Let's. Say dish. Takes combines some of those channels together on one channel. EXample. put. Animation with. Family/ treasure/gallery/ filmfest/voom movies. Etc. This. Could work and free up more. Space for national hd. They could rename them as. Well

And you think VOOM is going to give them permission to do this?

VOOM sure isn't going to do it themselves, they also broadcast these channels on CableVision.

[gatekeeper]

There is so many repeats on these channels anyway. Most people. Have dvrs and could set timers to record favorite shows

[Weezknight]

VOOM sure isn't going to do it themselves, they also broadcast these channels on CableVision.

I think that is the crux of the problem. It doesn't sound like VOOM is willing to do anything with their channels. The dropping of these 10 channels is just another result of what appears to be an apathetic company (VOOM, that is).