Dish to Distribute Voom's HD Channels (Interesting Read)

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Dish to Distribute Voom's HD Channels
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/29/AR2005042901089.html

By SETH SUTEL
The Associated Press
Friday, April 29, 2005; 6:02 PM

NEW YORK -- Cablevision Systems Corp. salvaged some value from its money-losing satellite TV venture called Voom, announcing Friday a deal with EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish network to carry Voom's 21 high-definition channels.

Cablevision formally decided to shut down the Voom satellite TV service earlier this month after the business failed to grow a substantial subscriber base.

Cablevision said that the Dish network would carry 10 of Voom's high-definition TV channels at first, including channels with sports, animation and news programming, expanding to all 21 of Voom's channels next year.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Separately, Cablevision also disclosed in its proxy statement later Friday that Thomas Dolan, a son of Cablevision's chairman and founder Charles Dolan, has been on unpaid leave from the company since April 18 and would not be nominated for re-election to the company's board at its annual shareholders meeting on May 19.

In his place, Charles Dolan nominated his daughter Marianne Dolan Weber to the board. The elder Dolan essentially controls the shareholder vote of Cablevision through supervoting shares held by him, his wife and a family trust.

Thomas Dolan had been the company's chief information officer and an executive vice president. The company provided no explanation for his sudden departure, and a company spokeswoman declined to make any comment on the matter.

Voom became the center of a family feud within Cablevision after James Dolan, the company's CEO, sided with board members against his father Charles in calling for the business to be shut down.

The company sold Voom's satellite to EchoStar, a move that Charles opposed. Charles tried to buy the remainder of Voom's assets from Cablevision privately along with his son Thomas, but an agreement was never reached.

The company eventually said it would shut down the satellite subscription service but continue to try to find distribution deals for the channels.

Voom attracted fewer than 50,000 subscribers since its launch in 2003, a far cry from the 14 million subscribers of The DirecTV Group Inc. and the 11 million subscribers that Dish has.

Voom, which focused on high-definition programming, never came close to being profitable, losing $661 million last year on revenues of $14.9 million.

As part of its proxy statement, Cablevision also disclosed that it paid its CEO James Dolan $8.1 million last year, down from $16.5 million in 2003.

Dolan's base salary of $1.6 million was unchanged from the year before, but his restricted stock awards fell to $1.2 million from $11.6 million in the year before. His bonus increased to $4.8 million from $2.8 million.

Thomas Dolan earned $3.1 million last year, up from $2.7 million the year before.

Cablevision's shares fell 14 cents to close at $25.95 in Friday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $16.13 to $31.64.
 
thank god

Thank god we don't have to ever deal with these misfits like James dolan ever. They have no gratitude the way they treated all voomers like sh*t. We would dish out $120 a month, and James was always threatening to take our voom away from us. All the crap we went thru is not fair.

I had heatburn every day. Dish has 10 million subscribers , i would rather give my money to Ergen than the crazy Dolans. I like Charles , but the rest of the Dolans are a buch of spoil, rick, a.. holes. they don't know how to treat their cutomers.
 
And if you want VOOM you ARE going to "give" your money to Egren--$100 to get the extra dish, unless you already have it free for locals (not all of us do).
 
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