CSR told buddy that Dish is buying VOOM

[cdru]

Think about it folks. Do you honestly think our penny pinching CEO would go throught all the extra costs of negotiating some type of a buyout of Voom without a single bit of SEC or FCC approval. Either approval would result in a small mountain of redtape as well as public disclosure would it not?. Narry a word has been found on it and you would think that E* buying Voom might show up SOMEWHERE.

 

[larrystotler]

Sounds like an idiotic idea. V*'s current 21 home grown HD channels suck, their equipment sucks, they have only 30K subs, and they are loosing money hand over fist. Charlie could do much better letting V* rot and wither like it has been doing all this time. V*'s main customer base has most with 2 services anyway. Big Deal.

 

[GaryPen]

Lest we forget the current qualifications required to get a CSR Job............a pulse and a car.

Does it require a car?

 

[James Long]

Sorry to open this can of worms again, but a CSR yesterday told a buddy of mine that Dish was buying VOOM and that their HD content was going to get big (at least the size of VOOM).

Probably just repeating a rumor they read on the Internet.

The original announcement for HD (2003) had a capacity of 50 channels. Of course, when the capacity was found to have problems (non ConUS coverage due to using a satellite designed for a ConUS slot 30 degres to the east) two things happened: 1) space magically opened up on 110 and 2) new HD suddenly became less compelling.

Buying Voom, or at least licensing their content, has been a rumor ever since --- even before Voom launched a year ago! I wouldn't expect to hear anything until January if a deal has been done (unless it sneaks in to a E* quarterly report).

BTW: Licensing the content can be done easily (much like Sirius allowed their music channels to be on E* in order to promote their full service). But any real merger will require government approval.

JL

 

[David_Levin]

Think about it folks. Do you honestly think our penny pinching CEO would go throught all the extra costs of negotiating some type of a buyout of Voom without a single bit of SEC or FCC approval.

Sure, they did it when they tried to buy DirecTV.

 

[dispatcher_21]

Well, didnt E* just get permission from the FCC to place a satellite in a new location? Coundlt the Voom or E* 61.5 bird go to this new location since having two at 61.5 is redundent?? I dont know, looking at all the facts, it does look like this buy out/merger talk could be the real deal.

 

[BFG]

That's what I was thinking, they could take the sat and move it somewhere else. The sat also has spot beams that aren't being used (I don't think)

 

[GaryPen]

I think this rumour has an excellent chance of being real. There have been eyewitness reports from months back of Dish execs visiting Voom offices, and vice versa. It makes excellent business sense for both companies.
Dish is in desperate need of additional DBS TP's and HD programming to compete with D*'s recently announced plans. Voom would benefit by offloading a money pit, and possibly still enjoying revenue from licensing their original HD content to Dish.
The customers would win, as well. A true win-win-win scenerio.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Cablevision needs to cast off V* which is a colossal flop. Investors are never going to go for the "spin off" they were trying to put together.

They can either sell to E* and get a semi decent price while Charlie is fumbling for bandwidth in the wake of D*'s recent announcements or they can wait until Cablevision hemorrages another billion dollars before they take the hint.

 

[rocatman]

Well, didnt E* just get permission from the FCC to place a satellite in a new location? Coundlt the Voom or E* 61.5 bird go to this new location since having two at 61.5 is redundent?? I dont know, looking at all the facts, it does look like this buy out/merger talk could be the real deal.

I have not heard anything about Dish (E*) getting permission for any new location for a DBS which is what the Voom satellite is. They did win licensing for DBS out at 157 W but only the west coast of the U.S. can see that slot. They also received permission for KuX band at 83 W, 109 W and 121 W. The Voom DBS TP licenses at 61.5 are not that great of value because some folks out on the west coast can not get them. The future of Dish's DBS TPs at 61.5 beyond 2005 is probably limited to perhaps HD distant networks or HD locals.

There are only a few things that Voom has that may be of real use to Dish. One is some unique HD programming but some on this board have questioned whether it is worthwhile. I believe Voom also has an uplink center that Dish may be able to use. Depending on what Cablevision wants to do with them, they also may have some channels that have been mentioned. What has not been mentioned are regional sports networks, some of which are or will be in HD including some with the Fox label on them. I don't know if Cablevision and Fox (DirecTV) own them jointly or not but Cablevision has a stake in them. Overall Dish does not have a great deal to gain by buying Voom but Charlie may want to see if he can pick up some of these assets on the cheap.

 

[larrystotler]

Uh, V* has that deal for the 72/FSS/KU sat, adding transponders in chunks, and then they also just got the 166/177 which would give then excellent coverage on the west coast and hawaii and alaska. Of course it will take a while for them to get the sats up.

If anything, E* may be trying to get the V* exclusive channels. But actually buying the company probably won't go, especially with the FCC wanting to see more competition. The biggest reason D* got to buy P* was that P* would have probably went out of business(of course, not that everyone is going back to FSS slots, they might have actually made it.....)

 

[rocatman]

Uh, V* has that deal for the 72/FSS/KU sat, adding transponders in chunks, and then they also just got the 166/177 which would give then excellent coverage on the west coast and hawaii and alaska. Of course it will take a while for them to get the sats up.

If anything, E* may be trying to get the V* exclusive channels. But actually buying the company probably won't go, especially with the FCC wanting to see more competition. The biggest reason D* got to buy P* was that P* would have probably went out of business(of course, not that everyone is going back to FSS slots, they might have actually made it.....)

The Voom deal for the Ku band at 72.5 is with SES Americom similar to Dish's deal at 85 and 105. The slots at 166 and 177 (175?) are pretty far west and Dish already has 148 and 157 but who knows. I don't see the FCC stopping Dish from buying Voom because of the small number of subscribers and isn't Voom on the brink of going out of business.

One item I discovered when I visited the Voom website is that the Voom satellite does have spotbeams and the TPs are configureable between CONUS and the spotbeams. Perhaps Dish could use the spotbeams to provide HD locals at least for eastern cities.

 

[Peter Parker]

My sister told me that the checkout clerk at Walmart said that the price of candy will go up next week.

 

[Bobby]

Hmmmm... it IS almost Halloween isn't it.....

 

[larrystotler]

The Voom deal for the Ku band at 72.5 is with SES Americom similar to Dish's deal at 85 and 105. The slots at 166 and 177 (175?) are pretty far west and Dish already has 148 and 157 but who knows. I don't see the FCC stopping Dish from buying Voom because of the small number of subscribers and isn't Voom on the brink of going out of business.

One item I discovered when I visited the Voom website is that the Voom satellite does have spotbeams and the TPs are configureable between CONUS and the spotbeams. Perhaps Dish could use the spotbeams to provide HD locals at least for eastern cities.

True, but they may take the 166 & 177 back if E* does decide to buy V*. I really hope Charlie isn't trying to do something that stupid. If V* was such a great service, then they would have many more suns then they do now. ANd what a lot of people fail to realize is that it took many years for E* and D* to recoup. They are short changing V* for no reason. Heck, there are internet companies that are STILL loosing money even now.

 

[Chris Freeland]

One item I discovered when I visited the Voom website is that the Voom satellite does have spotbeams and the TPs are configureable between CONUS and the spotbeams. Perhaps Dish could use the spotbeams to provide HD locals at least for eastern cities.

This I believe is the real value to E*, the combination of control of 61.5 and that spotbeam satellite that E* could use for HD locals from the large East coast cities and HD versions of the Eastern RSN's. E* already has an abundance of space for the West with 148 and 157 and E* has enough room on those Western birds they could do a number of local HD and HD RSN's without a spotbeam, even more by adding one their.