How to help VOOM

[StingyScotsman]

My two cents

Lots of good insights, Ladies and Gents.

But nobody has come out and clarified that the question ("Where the heck are all the subs?") is really a two-part question:

1. Why aren't new people signing up for VOOM?

and...

2. Why don't existing subs KEEP VOOM for very long?


Most of what has been discussed falls into question catagory #2. Picture quality? OTA problems? Pricing grumbles? Buggy software? These are things you don't find out until you are already a subscriber. My OTA antenna is my number one complaint, but OTA didn't factor into my initial purchasing decision once the Sears guy "pe-shawed" me, lied, and said that I'd get locals just fine with the second antenna.

I posit, in order, the reasons why NEW subscribers aren't moving to VOOM.

#1 98% of HDTV owners don't know that it exists.
#2 Market penetration of D* and E* is formidable. Which dovetails to...
#3 Customer looking at VOOM brochure: "They don't have my favorite channel that I get on D* or E*."

The single greatest opportunity that VOOM has to move a customer off of D* or E* will happen THE DAY THAT CUSTOMER BUYS A NEW HDTV. Nesting instinct. You all remember that day, don't you? You bought the ridiculously overpriced $70 Monster cables for your beautiful new baby, when you could have bought the same thing for $12??? You thought about upgrading your old surround system? Maybe you upgraded to a progressive scan DVD player while you were in the store?

Simply put, abso-freakin'-lutely indisputable... Voom MUST be offered at Best Buy and Circuit City, where 70% of the population buys their next HDTV.

There's an old axiom among salesmen that it takes 10 times more money to switch a new customer to your product for the first time than it does to keep an existing customer buying your product. And this is the shape of the specter of corporate death that is extending it's boney finger toward the doors of Rainbow DBS headquarters.

 

[DarrellP]

But nobody has come out and clarified that the question ("Where the heck are all the subs?") is really a two-part question:

1. Why aren't new people signing up for VOOM?

Marketing. Everyone I tell about Voom says "What?, Who? Zoom?". They've never heard of it. Even the people I know who have HD are not aware of the service. The adv. on MSN.com is a good start, as it the infomercials and other spots that have been shown lately. They should have done this from day one. Maybe now that the stb is more stable they can go forward with some confidence.

 

[djjsin]

I personally think the reason voom hasnt' picked up more subscribers is not because of PQ or the DVR, but because they are lacking basic services and don't know how to market themselves.

1. PPV - Who's going to order a service where they cannot order PPV. Unless your a videophile like most here, PPV is a necessity.
2. I don't think people really see the difference yet between HD and SD. Alot of people in my family have HD sets, but aren't willing to pay the cable company or direct TV extra for a HD reciever and HD content. I personally don't understand it, but they don't see it as being important.
3. Vooms Marketing Strategy. I felt like i was taking a big risk when I ordered voom (and still actually do). People havne't heard of Voom, and Voom isn't doing much to make there name a household name. You dont' see commercials, etc. I hunted voom down cause i found it offered what I needed. Not many are willing to do that, they want a well known service thats in there face.
4. Lack of experts - I think a big thing is a lack of big name experts or recognizable people who are endorsing voom. When I went to the infomercial filming, the producer made a comment about how he wanted to make the commerical with families, so he wanted a family style house, so people would relate to the families, instead of experts. I totally disagree with this. I believe people who don't know anything, listen to the experts. Thats where they get there information from. If you knew nothing about a service, do you want some jackass who know's nothing about it telling you what to do? No. What they should do sort of reminds me of the Xbox and what Microsoft did. They build a system marketed to hardcore gamers. Bascially got those people on board, and let them spread the word to everyone else. Also, why not get some big name directors aboard. Think about if someone like George Lucas supported Voom. Everyone already know's what a HD junkie he is, he's one of the pioneers of HD filming. I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap, but the return on it could be really worth while

 

[riffjim4069]

Above all else, VOOM needs to offen an affordable solution for the entire house if they hope to achieve 1.5M subscribers.

 

[djjsin]

good point, thats something that turned my dad off to Voom (actually to all satellite services)

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

...2. I don't think people really see the difference yet between HD and SD. Alot of people in my family have HD sets, but aren't willing to pay the cable company or direct TV extra for a HD reciever and HD content. I personally don't understand it, but they don't see it as being important...

I think you are onto something here.

I show Voom to my friends, and they go "Wow!", and I tell them go to www.voom.com. Sometimes I even give them a Voom brochure (which I got at Sears). Nobody has signed up!

It takes two kinds of situations to make the jump to Voom. One is a videophile who has to have the latest and greatest, already owns HDTV and whatever else. They have to have Voom. The other is the person who has been in the dark ages for years, takes one look at Voom on a widescreen HDTV and finally sees a reason to upgrade.

For everybody else with a pretty new SDTV and digital service, HDTV looks better but isn't compelling enough to bother with.

I fall into the "dark age" camp. We had a worn out, very old SDTV with local analog cable. Never had satellite, or digital TV, or premium channels. We discovered Voom, and suddenly we had our reason to upgrade everything. We got our HDTV just to watch VaVaVoom. We love it!

But I suspect that most Voomers fall into the "videophile" category.

 

[voomvoom]

Why aren't new people signing up for VOOM?

Simply put, abso-freakin'-lutely indisputable... Voom MUST be offered at Best Buy and Circuit City, where 70% of the population buys their next HDTV.

I would dispute this, simply because a lot of the people on this forum complain about OTA reception and Best Buy and Circuit City won't even bother to put an antenna up so you can see how great that reception can be. However, I agree Voom needs to be in both stores. I just wouldn't say it is indisputable.
And, as many people that do complain about OTA, maybe Voom (or the store's that do have Voom) should be displaying the OTA channels Voom is capable of getting instead of HD News. There are a lot of people with HD (capable) tv's that don't have an ATSC tuner. With Voom's tuner they could see what they're missing.

 

[StingyScotsman]

Best Buy and Circuit City won't even bother to put an antenna up so you can see how great that reception can be.

Uh... maybe that's because the OTA signal is free? Because it doesn't sell anything but tuners? You are thinking of OTA as a VOOM related service.

OTA was there before VOOM, and it will be there after VOOM is gone.

With Voom's tuner they could see what they're missing.

No. Sorry. With VOOM's OTA tuner on display Best Buy would never sell a single VOOM subscription. That's akin to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission holding it's annual convention in Chernobyl.

I respectfully disagree with your thesis, DoubleVoom.

 

[branchbouncer]

Voom is now pushing thier ad on DISCOVERY-HD(or maybe it was ESPN-HD) I saw it on Sunday,I am a D* sub for 8 years.We tried to get Voom this summer over 2 1/2 months.The install people kept dropping the ball or passing it off to another company,for whatever reason.After that long of a wait- to hell with them,What Voom needs more than anything is self-installs as an option.I did my single LNB years ago along with 5 or 6 friends houses,then upgraded to the triple LNB sometime back with no problems and then a few of the friends listed above.If Voom allowed self installs they would have me as a sub and at least 3-4 other people that I know and they would not be wasting funds paying installers that can not get the job done properly.So if you read this Voom send me the gear and you'll have new subs and only postage to deal with

 

[woodyak]

I agree with the poster who talked about the basics. Non-techy people aren't going to through all the trouble of switching only to find out they're missing the stuff they watch. To them HD is nice but it's not that nice. I had Voom for 3 months before I dropped it and went with the local cable company. Here is why I left:

*No reliable local channels > I understood going into this that it would be over OTA and it would be a bit sketchy, but when I spoke with VOOM they assured me that they would do whatever they could to make the locals as reliable as possible. This did not happen. After 5 visits they still couldn't get me an upgraded antenna. I told them to give me $100 credit and that I'd get it working but they wouldn't do that. They'd rather send Installs Inc. out 5x so they can try repointing my antenna over and over again.

*Lots of channels missing > You don't know how many complaints I heard from my wife about the missing channels. That was probably the deciding factor to go elsewhere. If there's nothing for the toddlers to watch during the daytime there's problems.

*Terrible weather fade > Rain, wind, heavy clouds. Any sort of weather other than sunny would knock out my signal completely. Voom had no solution to this besides sending Installs Inc. out to repoint it over and over again. I had Dish and I never lost a signal even during a blizzard.

*Content > You don't know how many times I heard from friends and family, yeah that's a beautiful picture but who wants to watch that? I don't pay for movie channels when I can Netflix stuff. The non-movie channels stuff got boring after 1 month. Nothing new/interesting ever seemed to come out.

The other stuff like buggy firmware, late upgrades, pvr, format changes. That stuff doesn't really bother most people that much. That's for the techies. If Voom wants to keep subscribers and succeed they need to concentrate on the basics. Ditch Install's Inc., get the basic channels (even if they are SD), ditch the crap that nobody watches to make room for the HD stuff, and get the weather thing fixed. What Voom is doing now is what Microsoft did with Win9x. Adding lots of "features" but not giiving people what they need.

 

[Sean Mota]

Whomever goes blindly into VOOM is asking for it. The only reason I went with it and paid $750 (credited later on) as the price of admission was "HD". This was my supplementary to what I already had with Dish and Cable. I did not expect RSN and did not expect any SD channels that were already carried by my other Dish or Cable. Plain and simple "HD" is what I was in for. My installation was not very smooth at all and had complications in the beginning with the buggy software but after the updates it has been in the clear. Yes, I still have an 18" dish which has experienced the same rain fade as the competition I have on the roof. To some the content may not be good but to others is "gold". I had netflix and cancelled. I couldn't stand watching the fuzzy picture of DVDs anymore. Not everyone is satisfied by what they get but so far so good for me (Just my opinion).

 

[PhilipF]

These are all great points. What does VOOM offer that the other Sat providers don't? More HD?
Problem is, most people don't have or just aren't interested in HDTV. I think they could pick up lots of subs by offering additional connections without the additional $5 charge.
Also, why charge $9+ for equipment rental? I know the other providers are getting away with it, but VOOM needs to get their foot in the door. They are offering $150 for signing up for one year, but I want to try the service out first before I make the commitment.
Consider this. Cut the subscription fees by $5 for the VOOM package and $10 for VaVaVOOM, and lose the additional STB fee as well as reduce the rental fees. This would greatly increase the number of subs. You may lose money on the existing customers, but what if you double the number of subs. I'd rather have 80K subs paying $80 each than 40K paying $120.
You can dispute the impact this might have, but it would make the service much more attractive than the rumors about price increases and buyouts we are getting.
Myself, I think the self install option would also win over a lot of people who are on the fence as I am.
I am all for helping VOOM, but what are they doing to help themselves?

 

[Ti-maniac]

I am sorry that I started this post. I liked VOOM the other day until they cut me off because I refuse to pay by credit card and insist on paying by check.

As far as I am concerned at this point they can go out of business.

 

[wase4711]

well, lets be honest, since less than 5% of the households in this country actually own HD televisions, and VOOM's entire reason for being is their claim to the most HD content, its obvious as to why the subscription base is so small....
in 5 years, when 20 or 30% of households have HD, things will be different, but, for now, since HD is NOT the reason most folks get Direct TV or Dish Net, then they will continue to attract and maintain the LIONS SHARE of subscribers..

Did anyone here actually sign up for VOOM for ANY OTHER REASON than the most HD content???

 

[riffjim4069]

Did anyone here actually sign up for VOOM for ANY OTHER REASON than the most HD content???

I'm pretty sure just about everyone jumped on board to receive the most HD...and many maintain additional service providers. However, after a while some people (me) get tired of paying multiple providers and are looking for VOOM to provide a more complete and affordable solution:

DVR - we need a it! Where is it? I hate Cable, but I am having to use their HD DVR because VOOM has yet to release their offering. The SA8000HD isn't the greatest thing in the world...but it's here and it works.

Thin Clients - we need an affordable Whole Home Networking solution. Personally, I'm not willing to pay an additional $29 ($14.50 x 2) to rent two more STBs. However, I am willing to pay $10 ($5 x 2) in mirror fees for two low-cost thin client boxes.

SD Channels - What happened? VOOM pretty much stopped providing us with Cable Favorites badly needed to round-out their line-up. Where in Lifetime, FOOD, HGTV, etc.?

HD Channels - What happened to the HDNETs, INHDs and even Wealth-TV? Since scaling back to Basic VOOM (subscribing to a Cable HD DVR Promo with free Starz/Showtime), I realized how few HD channels are available excluding the 21 VOOM Exclusives:

ESPNHD - already on cable
Bravo HD - I infrequently watch this station as it is
TNT HD - coming to cable by year end
Disc HD - already on cable...plus, they are proving both INHDs and HDNETs

PPV - pay per view movies are a waste for me, but I am sure quite a number of people want them. Of course, ESPN GamePlan and NHL Center Ice are a MUST in order to keep me as a future customer.

 

[Dvlos]

well, lets be honest, since less than 5% of the households in this country actually own HD televisions, and VOOM's entire reason for being is their claim to the most HD content, its obvious as to why the subscription base is so small....
in 5 years, when 20 or 30% of households have HD, things will be different, but, for now, since HD is NOT the reason most folks get Direct TV or Dish Net, then they will continue to attract and maintain the LIONS SHARE of subscribers..

Did anyone here actually sign up for VOOM for ANY OTHER REASON than the most HD content???

Exactly, but I think Voom could potentially position itself for a big HDTV market share, if they keep the "built from the ground up for maximum HD!" thing going on.

 

[riffjim4069]

Exactly, but I think Voom could potentially position itself for a big HDTV market share, if they keep the "built from the ground up for maximum HD!" thing going on.

Agree, but they have to be stay afloat until 2007+. In order to stay afloat, I feel they need to add the items I mentioned above. Also, in order to add all these HD/SD channels they need to get busy with MPEG4, Bigger Dish, etc.

 

[wase4711]

I agreee Dvlos; thats why I am more interested in VOOM increasing their HD Quantity and Quality, then adding the FOOD network, or HGTV, or even Lifetime..leave THAT to Direct TV,and increase the HD quality and Quantity on VOOM....
VOOMs best chance for survival is focusing on their CORE COMPETENCY, which, up till now, has been HIGH DEF....

 

[Sean Mota]

I completely agree about HD channels. This is their bread and butter. Everything else is secondary. It is funny that here you have a service dedicated to HD but yet find themselves duplicating the other providers SD channels. To me give me HD and forget the rest. Concentrate on DVR, bandwith expansion and improve the quality of your channels, get rid of your billing and installation issues and once you do this, you will have a product to sell.

 

[PhilipF]

How about an option for HD channels only?
I would be willing to pay for the basic service with an SD provider, cable/satellite, and pay VOOM for their HD channels.
Or sacrifice some SD channels for the HD and use VOOM exclusively if they provide a cheaper service than E* or D*.
My wife would miss channels like Life/HGTV, but she would understand if we were paying less for VOOM than the other service that has those channels.
For example, do away with the $5 charge for additional STB. This one thing alone would prove that VOOM is forward thinking and not just trying to be D*/E* clone with more HD content.