Now here is a read...
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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Hall, put down your Echostar pom poms...I never said VOOM didn't do anything wrong. However, I do not feel that Echostar's actions are appropriate...nor are they ethically motivated.
The dispute appears to be with how VOOM allocated "overhead" charges to meet the $100 million spending limit required by the contract. VOOM asserts that "vague" language in the affiliate agreement led to the misunderstanding. Did VOOM try to "pull the wool over the eyes of a Gambini" (My Cousin Vinny, 1992)? This is highly likely! That is why their overhead charges to the contract did not meet generally acceptable accounting standards, and it is why VOOM was busted when they were audited by Echostar.
Whether the error was intentional is irrelevant since VOOM asserts the affiliate agreement contained "cure provisions" that could be invoked should VOOM fail to meet the spending requirements. Echostar contends that VOOMs failing to meet the spending requirement triggers a termination right. While this may certainly be true for repeat offenses, I do not see how this one-time failure cannot be remedied via the cure provisions: VOOM permitted to make up past spending deficiencies or reimburse Echostar the difference.
Based on Echostar's November letter advising VOOM they would terminate the affiliate agreement unless VOOM consented to permit Echostar to carry VOOM on a tiered basis, and combined with Echostar's shady/litigatious history, one can reasonably conclude that E* is violating both the spirit if not the letter of the contract. While significant facts are not in evidence at this time, Echostar has a track record for being on the wrong side in the courtroom the past few years.
Also, are there any companies doing business with Echostar that don't wind up in court? Why does this company have so many problems with vendors, business partners, and the FCC? Perhaps this is the question you should answer!
Voom's RUSH-HD was recently added to over 400K homes on SKY HD service according to the press release. VOOM is building their library. Hopefully, this is a sign that VOOM will improve its product and continue to grow.
Even IF E* succeeds and is able to drop Voom, I'm not sure that would mean more national HD. We really don't know WHAT E* plans (if anything) to do with those slots, should they become available. This suit might even have been spurred by the AMC-14 failure, with E* planning to use that additional space as a replacement for the AMC-14 capacity.
The AMC 14 failure has nothing to do with E* dropping Voom. Look at the timeline in the PDF, the AMC 14 failed on March 15th.
Yeah, but other then premium movie channels, most of those so-called HD channels have little to no HD right now. At least, inspite of lots of repeats, Voom is all HD all the time. I would be sad to see it go.
I still shake my head at all of the energy I put in to being frustrated by not having Sci Fi HD, and then when I get it... other then BSG, not much HD at all..
I'm happy about Sci-Fi HD. You didn't seriously expect it to have alot of HD content, do you? I view it as an uncompressed SD channel, with some HD offerings. Some of their TV movies, and BSG have HD along with a couple of other shows. However, the standard def shows look worlds better. Doctor Who, for example. I recorded the same episode from both the standard def and HD channels. The HD version looked worlds better - almost DVD quality, and Doctor Who isn't even filmed in HD. They simply didn't trash the PQ, and broadcasted it as it was. So we got it in "true SD" Hey, it's better than a poke in the eye.
I don't think it is because they worked out a deal. I think this would be an effort on VOOM's behalf to try and keep things fresh because they know that Dish did the audit and DISH believed that VOOM hadn't kept up on their part of the deal.
If your company was about to lose it's primary source of revenue due to the fact that it was non compliant on a particular issue, wouldn't you try to resolve that issue? Especially if you were going to court for that very reason.
Remember, we are seeing this notice now, but the original issue came up sometime late last year. It should be expected that VOOM try and show some content changes. It's just too bad that it had to come to this for VOOM to do the things it promised to do.
(I wonder what the the audit really showed.)
YEs I agree the only channel I watched was Monsters hd and maybe RAVE. The entire suite of channels was nothing but REPEATS . DISH should win their case against VOom and we should see some new hd channels added. I thought about it and I think that Voom is 7 hd channels to one transponder right? IF so then at most we will regain 2 or 3 transponders for more hd .
I think the situation is that the amount of subs to voom no longer amounts to profit on dish. I know there are those here that love voom here but lets face it, money talks. Now that the subs have a choice of hd packs most have opted to save 10 bucks.
That does make sense. I just think it would be smart on Vooms part to do what Dish wants because they are the reason they are still in business. I just hope they keep a few of the channels.
I agree that "true SD" makes some "HD" channels a better value, but....
Personally, I'd rather have a whole bunch of MPEG4 SD channels in "true digital quality" than a few pseudo-HD channels that show 90-95% SD. For example, FX comes to mind. We watch quite a few shows on FX that would, undoubtably, be better in HD. However, if Charlie and FOX can't come to terms on the HD channel, how about a good-quality SD channel, at least? How many of those could you put on a transponder? (And, yes, I know that "eastern arc" might address this.)
Brad
How about some stats to back up your feelings?
I think more people here have dropped SD and kept all the HD channels than those who have dropped to HD Essentials.
If they move first run BSG and SGA to UniversalHD, we can drop the SciFiHD channel. Eureka and Dr. Who can move too if needed.
Funny how the combined VS/Golf channel has some up in arms but they have no problem suggesting Voom combine channels...
In fact, now that Monk and Psych are on NBC proper, we can drop that (USAHD) too. Combine the saved bandwidth from all the stretch armstrong channels and release two new HD channels, one for Law and Order reruns and CSI reruns and the other could be the Wrestling Channel.
There, problem solved.
Besides, Dish is adding the HD channels listed in my sig in the next month or so without sacrificing anyone else's favorite programming.
Sheesh! I was excited when I first upgraded to HD and started watching VOOM, but during the past few months the programming has been less than stellar and repetitive.
If they're ejected from programming, I'm afraid DISH will add crap channels instead like QVC-HD or something equally useless.
If they're ejected from programming, I'm afraid DISH will add crap channels instead like QVC-HD or something equally useless.
I think you are misunderstanding an essential part of both the contract, as well as the assessment by SCONY Justice. According to the contract, the right to terminate under certain conditions only begins should a material breech occur twice in a year, or within 6 months of each other, as the right to cure allows for one breech, after which remediation steps are to be taken and the breech must not then recur within 6 months. Due to the annual nature of the supposed breech in question it has to be read that this breech occurs outside of the right to cure provision as the benchmark for the breech is the annual spend. It is impossible that this be violated twice in a year, thus, if you interpret the contract as you appear to be from your words above, lack of annual expediture is a deficiency that could continue ad finituum as the right to terminate could never be invoked by Echostar due to the way the cure provision is structured to include the wording about bi-annual recurrance.
So, essentially, this breech in my opinion occurs outside of both the contractual cure and termination provisions due to their limited scope, so the contract then becomes subject to interpretation, which is why it is being litigated, to determine what this interpretation should be.
Not to be an E* fanboy, but I think E* is in the right on this one. Seems to me, Voom intentionally deviated from GAAP practices to include overhead with the intent to decieve E* and figured that if they got caught, they could claim right to cure under the agreement and just not do it again. Due to what seems to be intentional disregard for the agreement and the ambiguity of how such a breech could be rectified, I am not sure how there is anyway any court which would find in favor of Voom. This is probably something best settled out of court, but it seem E* has come to the conclusion that the best business strategy for them is to avoid a settlement and nullify the agreement.
In the event that I get 15 new National HD Channels in place of Voom, I am all for it.
Just my 2 pesos....
This will be interesting...
If they drop Voom (which I hope they don't), do they add new channels right away to replace the loss or does my monthly bill go down $10/month because they dropped the Voom channels?
If they drop Voom (which I hope they don't), do they add new channels right away to replace the loss or does my monthly bill go down $10/month because they dropped the Voom channels?
I think that Voom should consolidate down to about 5 channels or go away. They haven't a landed any cable deals nor D* and their time has passed.
They had value when there weren't even 15 HD channels out there to be found. But now that there are, Voom has out lived its usefulness. Time to clear it out and load up that shelf with some fresh merchandise.
I still don't understand why Voom didn't go after all of those canceled Dramas and Comedies that have died off from Network TV. HDNet does this, but only to a minor extent. Now that its 2008 there must be dozens upon dozens of axed Sitcoms out there to be grabbed up cheap, especially those that never made it to a full season.
They had value when there weren't even 15 HD channels out there to be found. But now that there are, Voom has out lived its usefulness. Time to clear it out and load up that shelf with some fresh merchandise.
I still don't understand why Voom didn't go after all of those canceled Dramas and Comedies that have died off from Network TV. HDNet does this, but only to a minor extent. Now that its 2008 there must be dozens upon dozens of axed Sitcoms out there to be grabbed up cheap, especially those that never made it to a full season.
Totally dropping 1/3 of your total hd lineup can't be a good move for E*. Even if you did add more national channels. I can imagine outside of this site that many who have hd through E* would be up in arms turning their hd set on and not having Monsters or some of the others that they have grown attached to. If you don't like Voom why are you with E*??? If I didn't like Voom I would have never cancelled D* in the first place. Dropping Voom would be a major mistake. In all honesty though Voom really sucked the last 6 months. They have improved over the last 40 days though and are back to where they were last year. I'd still like to see them spend more though.
