Businesses are not only bought and sold every day, but they go bankrupt everyday too, or are sold off piece by piece for their assets. It's a fact that most new businesses go bankrupt within about the first year or two. No knights with shining armor to save them. Lots of vultures to pick through the roadkill. I hope this isn't the case with Voom.
One possibility that I haven't heard mentioned is a foreign partner. Not sure what laws are regarding foreign ownership of a US Satellite TV service is, but are there any European Satellite TV giants out there that would like an opening into the US Market?
Another possibility I haven't hear mentioned is a company like Sprint, Verizon, or Cricket. This really is a similar industry that could be integrated into a whole telecommunications package down the road.
Unfortunately Voom should have had more of their ducks in a row when they launched. They were competing against two strong players and didn't have a strong enough business plan to compete with them. They should have:
- identified a strong secondary niche besides HDTV
- had stong SD channel lineup to begin with
- had their DVR ready day 1
- made sure they could get more of the established HD channels like HDNet/INHD, etc with a recognized "brand" name.
- made sure they had a stronger lineup of retail outlets to pair up with.
- marketed a "HD only" package to satisfied E*, D*, cable customers.
- had competitive "no investment" Installation offers from day one.
- had a true interactive satellite tv option ready to roll out within the first year for those with high speed internet connections.
Now Cablevision either needs to do most of this themselves, or they need to find a partner or a buyer willing to do most of these things (plus carry out the announced expanded channel line-up) if Voom will survive in its present form. My hope was that they were willing to carry this out themselves, or find a partner to do this with them (and NOT Microsoft, Walmart, D*, or E*). We need more competition in this country, not less.
Hindsight is 20/20, but I bet a group of MBA students could have looked at the business model and come up with some valid pointers at the start and avoided some of Voom's pitfalls.
- jame