Now here is a read...

[voripteth]

Voom was very impressive when I first got Dish. Then I realized that they showed the same four programs day after day after day after day. It is no wonder that Dish wonders what Voom is doing about content.

It would be an interesting exercise to see how much airtime Voom actually has during a week if you only count unique programs.

...

I just went to the programming guide and looked at unique programs on Monsters from Tuesday to Saturday. To be honest they DID have much more programming than I remembered them having. My quick survey showed that approximately half the air time for that week was unique within that week. I'm sure they repeat movies during the month and I'll leave that analysis to someone else...

So, I'll eat my words that they only show four movies a day. I do suspect that most people don't know they have changed.

 

[EricBskiVT]

I'm not going to argue the legal aspects of the case, but I want Dish to know that I think Voom is some of the best HD they have and differentiates Dish from everyone else. I love Rave, Equator, Filmfest, and Rush. Some of the content can be seen elsewhere, but almost always with commercials. Voom is one of the few that is HD almost all the time.

 

[waltinvt]

We can argue the quality and necessity of Voom 'til the cows come home but I think the real issue is Dish's desperation.

"E" is scrambling, trying to throw whatever it can into the pot in an effort to stay competitive within it's current bandwidth constraints. This is obvious by their recent conus to spotbeam moves and addition of so many HD LiLs.

More HD LiLs is not national HD but that and having the best HD DVR in the business has been crucial in keeping churn down since "D" added so much national HD. But even that is wearing thin, so "E" is desperate for some kind of a big splash.

I wouldn't be surprised to see "E" completely replace Voom with more national HD channels very soon and let the implications work themselves later. With their last satellite setback, they can't afford to wait much longer. Just my take on it.

 

[dlsnyder]

Dish dimply wanted to retier the voom channels and call it even.. VOOM refused, so dish followed there only other course....IF voom won't let them retier, then they will remove the programming..Voom sued, so the channels remain untill the court case has been heard...
VOOM, if they really want to keep afloat, should simply say, fine, retier them and move on... they would obviously lose some money, since most peoiple would prolly not sub to them, but they would still have more coming in than NOTHING...

I agree, this is what should happen. If Dish unilaterally turns off VOOM programming tomorrow they have nothing to put in its place immediately. Talk about losing customer goodwill! Can you imagine paying the extra $10/mo just for Universal HD, HDNet Movies, and a couple of sports repeat channels?

If VOOM does some independent promotion, like they used to do when they were on their own, perhaps they could generate more interest in their programming. All the movie nets do that, why shouldn't VOOM?

 

[dlsnyder]

We can argue the quality and necessity of Voom 'til the cows come home but I think the real issue is Dish's desperation.

"E" is scrambling, trying to throw whatever it can into the pot in an effort to stay competitive within it's current bandwidth constraints. This is obvious by their recent conus to spotbeam moves and addition of so many HD LiLs.

More HD LiLs is not national HD but that and having the best HD DVR in the business has been crucial in keeping churn down since "D" added so much national HD. But even that is wearing thin, so "E" is desperate for some kind of a big splash.

I wouldn't be surprised to see "E" completely replace Voom with more national HD channels very soon and let the implications work themselves later. With their last satellite setback, they can't afford to wait much longer. Just my take on it.

I think it's more about Charlie trying to save a few bucks. He wouldn't even shut off NickGAS after the channel went dark. He just wants to put VOOM in the Ultimate tier to make it appear more valuable, and to have a lower priced HD pack that can compete with what DirecTV is offering.

 

[kimmichael44]

I will leave Dish for Directv if they lose Voom. I feel that Dish has too many legal issues that seem to continually get in the way of getting programming. These battles though shrouded in the 'best deal for our customers' hype really are for the benefit of Charlie and not the customer. When was there a price reduction or a rebate due to the removal of programming? Every Spring look forward to a price increase.

 

[Greg Bimson]

They're saying as long as they remain under contract with Dish and the current agreement, they will survive. They have NO incentive to shop their channels elsewhere.

But that is what I am getting at. The current contract with Dish Network ended on 31 January. Now VOOM has every incentive to shop their channels elsewhere, because their fate hangs in the balance.

 

[M Sparks]

A year ago, I would have been defending Voom. But I honestly can't remember the last time I watched it. There's some value there, but not 15 channels worth. And just think...we were supposed to get 6 more!

I wonder if all of this is just part of an effort to get Voom to reduce their number of channels. It would help with their limited content, and free up room for DISH.

We already have "Voom HD Movies". Could we soon see ...
"Voom HD Sports" (Rush & Worldsport)
"Voom HD Family" (Family Room & Animania)
"Voom HD Lifestyle" (Treasure, Ultra, and maybe even Gameplay.)

You could combine Gallary and Rave for an "arts" channel, or more likely do an educational channel with Gallery and Equator (which would open things up for other kinds of educational programming.)

Perhaps Film Fest could have rotating daily themes- Monsters day, Kung Fu day, World Cinema day...they could bring back Guy TV, and maybe even use some of those themes that never made it to market like Cosmic. Didn't they have a gay themed movie channel at one time?

You could knock them down to 8 channels easy, still have coherent themes, have fewer repeats, and the flexibility to add more programming that doesn't meet their rigid themes.

 

[voripteth]

I really like Sparks idea.

 

[dfergie]

If Dish gets rid of Voom... it will lose the only exclusive it has that Direct doesn't... I sub to both with Direct being the under subscribed service which would certainly change if Voom goes...

 

[bigthrust]

It is about time for Dish to kill Voom once and for all. Voom "cut it's own throat" in my opinion.

 

[philhu]

Don't forget, if VOOM goes under, it affects Expressvu and Optimum cable too

Expressvu shows 3 VOOM channels now

When they went to minimum programming 6 months ago, it was obvious that they had stripped the $$$ from the product.

 

[jbernardi]

I primarily watch network programs, sports, and movies in HD.
If E* dumps Voom, I'd prefer to see the space filled with more of the HD movie channels that D* has:
Cinemax West, HBO West, Showtime 2, Showtime West, Starz Comedy, Starz Edge, Starz Kids and Family, Starz West.

 

[wtb955]

Of course, where do you think he gets his news?

According to Swanni, he gets his news from DBSTalk.com.

 

[ekilgus]

I think by now most everyone can see that VOOM has probably as many proponents as detractors and I really don't think Charlie has any intention of removing VOOM from Dish. What's more likely in my opinion is that he's maneuvering to: reduce the rate, maybe force them to consolidate a couple of channels or get VOOM moved to a higher tier. However, I've been wrong before but I really like VOOM and would not be happy to see it go. While it's not the only reason I remain with Dish, if for example; E* pulled VOOM and D* picked it up, I would switch in a heartbeat.

 

[Jeffro34tx]

I wouldn't be surprised to see "E" completely replace Voom with more national HD channels very soon and let the implications work themselves later. With their last satellite setback, they can't afford to wait much longer. Just my take on it.

This is exactly what I was going to comment as well. Perhaps they would drop Voom for now, and let the litigation take it's course. In the meantime, they would add any new additional National HD channels that may be available. (assuming they can get a contract or any technical issues they seem to always have - or at least seem to use as an excuse!) If later they came to an agreement or the court found in favor of Voom, should they need to add it back to their programming, perhaps by then they would have made room for more national HD channels.

Basically, in the short term, maybe they plan to add new National HD channels, putting Voom to the side, either temporarily or permanently.

I wouldn't mind either way. Personally, I do not watch Voom that much anymore. Voom served a good purpose for me in the beginning when there was not that many other HD channels out there. However, as more channels have launched and been added to Dish, Voom has lost it's niche with me. I agree with others here who have said that maybe they should condense the channels down to about 4 or 5. It was nice to have Voom's original programming and 24 hour HD Programming. To this day, there really are not that many other channels that show true HD content 24 hours a day. However, I believe they lost many viewers by not keeping up with NEW original content. I for one, and perhaps many others as well, no longer even check Voom's schedule for content because it has repeated so many programs for so long. It's too bad, but I think Dish has every right to do what they are doing. Voom should have spent the money to keep the programming updated and fresh.

I enjoyed WorldSport for the Soccer. I also enjoyed watching the Soundstage shows.

I am not in favor of losing Voom, but I am in favor of them being forced to spend the money they agreed to spend to keep the programming fresh, and if that means that they go in to a different tier because they did not hold up their agreement then so be it. However, all of that being said, I would not lose any sleep if Voom was to be taken away either. I would be more likely to watch any new National HD channels that may be added in it's place. But the best scenario would be to keep VOOM and add more national HD channels. This would at least keep the advantage for Dish of having some HD channels that DirectTV does not have.

(If Dish does decide to remove VOOM and Add additional National HD channels in it's place, I sure hope that they get everything in order first so that they could add and MAKE AVAILABLE the channels asap.) Dish, please do not remove VOOM and wait months before you add something in it's place! I can see it now, the excuses for why the channels couldn't be added.. from week to week... months later we get one or two channels in it's place.

 

[Erosman]

VOOM was and is the main reason I stayed with DISH when the HD packages came out a couple of years ago. I have seen wonderful movies on the VOOM channels that I have yet to see anywhere else; particularly in HD and commercial free. The HD premiere of "The Dinner Game" on World Cinema and discovering the truly entertaining "Chinese Ghost Story" trilogy on the Kung Fu channel are two highlights that frequently come to mind.

If VOOM goes away so does my inclination to stick with DISH over the other choices/providers. How can you folks get so excited about channels like Chiller when they censor content and add commercials? It gives me a good feeling to see the "presented uncut and in the original aspect ratio" message just before the movies start on Monstervision.

I don't think Charlie is as bad as some of you imply. I do hope he and DISH can find a way to keep VOOM available and affordable.

 

[8bitbytes]

It would be very disappointing to see Voom go away but I wouldn't be surprised to see a bunch of useless, overcompressed, stretched, upscaled, ad ridden garbage replace Voom.

 

[Mr.Pinkeye]

Of course, where do you think he gets his news?

It can't be here, because he's always sure to cite his sources.

 

[M Sparks]

What did I mis-read ? The person I responded to suggested that VOOM can't survive without Dish's carriage. VOOM admits that that is the case.

Right.

But you said that the person must not have read the PDF. Which sounds like you thought the PDF said the opposite.

I know what you were trying to say, but it was a confusing way to say it.