Dish and HD
My first thought upon hearing the news was this: E* knows the limitations of their current sat with respect to HD...they want to achieve rapid leadership in HD, ahead of D*.
By buying the Voom satellite and uplink center, they have a turnkey HD broadcast system, with just about all of the kinks worked out, good and cheap STBs from a well-known provider, a DVR around the corner, and a starting subscriber base of 26,000.
Marketing goes to work selling an all-new E* HD+ service. Yes, if you're an existing E* customer you'll need a new dish, but E* is locking in that customer at higher rates (presumably) over a long term. For existing E* HD customers, bite the bullet and pay for the new install, for them. They'll be eternally grateful. Give them free upgraded HD programming for 3 months, then back to their original subscription. They'll call and buy the upgraded package, and it's one year to payback on the free install.
An upgrading current E* customer keeps everything they have now in terms of channel but now is receiving unbeatable HD capability. E* trashes the Voom originals and condenses the content down to five or six really good HD channels (Rave, Rush, Equator), once again to provide advantage of D*. They can possibly use the spot transmission support to do locals in key markets, and rely on the STB's OTA tuner everywhere else. Remove the SD/HD doubling that Voom inexplicably does and make use of the bandwidth for key locals.
What's not to like about this plan? Ink an agreement with Motorola to ramp up STB product, advertise like crazy (starting in a few months) to your own subscriber base, upselling to the new service.
Your turnkey HD operation can include significant parts of the current Voom technical staff for even faster startup time. Get the HD DVR support off and running, fast, and find a way to make it cost half of what D*'s does...then watch the new subscriptions roll in...
Where's the flaw?