VOOM Goes BOOM - update Dish Drops all 15 VOOM Channels

[jansan]

In the beginning, E* offering VOOM HD Networks was a premium. It was a tool for savvy customers who didn't mind spending extra for these services. They were at the time high-end customers. Just like the same people who would spend extra to get Sunday Ticket, Extra Innings, etc.

Now, E* needs a serious plan.
Are they going to become a price service? No.
Are they going to start bundling services? No. They are not a telco. No infrastructure in place.
Is HD service becoming a commodity? Yes.
Are they going to enter into exclusive agreements with content providers? Only Voom which seems to be ending at this minute.
Are they spending several dollars to keep existing customers? They must.
Do they have a marketing plan? Please let me know.

I feel for the retailers who are trying to sell E* service. Almost a bait and switch yesterday. I am anxious to find out their new marketing plan.

 

[abricko]

It's time to re-org the 9000's, E* channel line up is messy!

I liked that ALL the *real* HD channels were in the 9000s it made for an easier time to browse. The favorites list "All HD" includes HD PPV and other Sports HD crap I don't sub to so browsing takes longer.

Regarding VOOM, I liked many of the channels, with recent channel additions I find that I watch them less. The channels they kept are good and if it leaves us with more space to keep adding channels until they can get their new birds up, I'm for it. I'll bet when they added all those channels they were really maxing out the system and PQ was probably suffering on some channels (I wasn't able to verify, watching via Sling) lets hope this removal helps in many ways.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I feel for the retailers who are trying to sell E* service. Almost a bait and switch yesterday. I am anxious to find out their new marketing plan.

Team Summit is this week (Team Summit is Dish Network yearly retailer conferance / pep rally / dog and pony show) and SatelliteGuys will be there.

Its going to be interesting thats for sure.

 

[tigerfan33]

I am anxious to find out their new marketing plan.

Oppose to their old one.

Never had one looks like never will. Marketing and communication are two things Dish does not have. You think Dish would learn it's lesson on how to market and talk to each other within.

 

[Smith P.]

The only thing I can think of is that they have been monitoring the usage of the voom channels for awhile, and decided that the few viewers that actually watched them were expendable, if they decided to quit over voom.

I dont have any proof that they have been doing this, but it would be quite easy to put something in the firmware of the ViP receivers to do so, and beam the results back with the nightly phone home.

Removing channels without a PR or a warning is BAD BUSINESS in my opinion.

They DO - DVR sends "stb_health" XML file each week, it include a lot of info, particulary:
<channelUsageTV1>155|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</channelUsageTV1>

 

[gatekeeper]

This is pure. Speculation of course but here is something dish could do They dropped 10 voom channels ok.Let's. Say dish. Takes combines some of those channels together on one channel. EXample. put. Animation with. Family/ treasure/gallery/ filmfest/voom movies. Etc. This. Could work and free up more. Space for national hd. They could rename them as. Well

 

[Weezknight]

Service A offers: Ultra HD, Family Room HD, Gameplay HD, and Treasure HD.
Service B offers: Bravo HD, Disney HD, Travel Channel HD, and Cartoon Network HD.

The average customer is not aware of the lack of ANY (or at least hardly any) HD content on half of service B; but service B still sounds better because of brand recognition. Service B is more sell-able to the hoi polloi. If we want to attract NEW customers to our service, we need to try and lure with a chocolate bar, not brussle sprouts.

They also have to realize it will piss off some of the existing customers, but they probably figure they can attract more than they will loose with the change in programing.

This is exactly the case here. While the Voom channels were "exclusives" in a sense, they don't offer the brand-name programming that people are looking for. When the early adopters got their HDTV's they were looking for compelling HD programming, but now that John Q. Public can afford to go out and get an HDTV all they want is to be able to watch the shows they know in HD.

This is the reason why E* will always put more emphasis on LiL rollouts instead of national channels, because more people watch Lost, Grey's Anatomy, ER, CSI, etc...

This is also the reason that E* has no problems cutting out the Voom networks in exchange for the channels rolled out yesterday. The average American family would rather have the Disney channels in HD, than have the generic sounding "Family Room" channel.

 

[Jeffro34tx]

This is pure. Speculation of course but here is something dish could do They dropped 10 voom channels ok.Let's. Say dish. Takes combines some of those channels together on one channel. EXample. put. Animation with. Family/ treasure/gallery/ filmfest/voom movies. Etc. This. Could work and free up more. Space for national hd. They could rename them as. Well

And you think VOOM is going to give them permission to do this?

VOOM sure isn't going to do it themselves, they also broadcast these channels on CableVision.

 

[gatekeeper]

There is so many repeats on these channels anyway. Most people. Have dvrs and could set timers to record favorite shows

 

[Weezknight]

VOOM sure isn't going to do it themselves, they also broadcast these channels on CableVision.

I think that is the crux of the problem. It doesn't sound like VOOM is willing to do anything with their channels. The dropping of these 10 channels is just another result of what appears to be an apathetic company (VOOM, that is).

 

[haertig]

They DO - DVR sends "stb_health" XML file each week, it include a lot of info, particulary:
<channelUsageTV1>155|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</channelUsageTV1>

My Dish receiver is on most of the time, but the TV isn't. So probably 85% of the data they upload from me tells them the last channel I was on before turning off the TV, not what I'm actually watching. Technically, it's probably more like the last channel the DVR tuned to to record something. I never watch anything live (too many commercials).

So if they're collecting this data to see what shows I watch so they can figure out what commercials I saw - they're pretty far from the mark.

"54% of all statistics are incorrect, and 72% of the population realizes this."

 

[gatekeeper]

Well. Your right if voom doesn't let them. Combine channels together there's nothing that can be done.

 

[Jeffro34tx]

The average customer is not aware of the lack of ANY (or at least hardly any) HD content on half of service B; but service B still sounds better because of brand recognition.

I am aware that most of these "Brand Name" channels only offer a few hours of original HD programming at the most each week. However, when I set my recordings, I still prefer to use the HD Channel to record the shows instead of the SD version. For one, I believe the picture quality is still better. Two, even with it being in HD and taking up more space, at least it is MPEG4.

Besides, whether they are produced in HD or not, at least those channels do have some quality programming, and are not repeated as often as most of the shows that were on many of the VOOM channels. In my opinion, VOOM blew it for themselves. They should have lived up to the terms of their contract and produced more original content.

It's too bad, I would like to still have all the VOOM channels in addition to some more "Brand Name" HD Channels. Whether DISH is doing their strong-arm negotiating tactics or whether they actually intend on keeping those channels permanently removed, in the end, I believe it is VOOM's fault. They shouldn't have given DISH any reason or LOOP Hole to do this.

Sounds like whoever is running VOOM made some critical mistakes.

 

[fz5j2r]

How many $10 per month credits did you have 18 months ago??

I am not sure. I did have some over the past 3 years from the CEO office. Some of the added cost is for the 4 DVR's I have ($21) plus HD went up, plus our Everything Package went up.

What I have I like, just not the price. However Direct is probably priced about the same and their DVR's cannot hold a candle to Dish.

The DVR is an awesome invention. They are right up their with the invention of the wheel.

 

[Smith P.]

My Dish receiver is on most of the time, but the TV isn't. So probably 85% of the data they upload from me tells them the last channel I was on before turning off the TV, not what I'm actually watching. Technically, it's probably more like the last channel the DVR tuned to to record something. I never watch anything live (too many commercials).

So if they're collecting this data to see what shows I watch so they can figure out what commercials I saw - they're pretty far from the mark.

"54% of all statistics are incorrect, and 72% of the population realizes this."

Nay, they capture each channel and duration when you press buttons on remote/front panel; sending each week; see that number '150' - that's the counter how many times you changed channels during last week.

 

[cforrest]

Not sure if anyone follows the index number from the injunction ruling, but the case is on going, as there was another Preliminary Conference scheduled for this morning. So as the case goes to trial, the channels could come back if VOOM wins, hence them being on the satellites and hidden for now. I would not expect anymore HD to be added in case Echostar loses the case, since the channels would have to be turned back on. Unless Echostar has the capacity to add more channels on the satellites with the 10 VOOM channels hidden on them, not my area of expertise.

Edit:

Holy crap. Echostar has a bunch of cases coming up, I will list below.

All cases are in Supreme New York, so using NY E-Courts anyone can see the status of the cases as they progress.

VOOM v. Echostar - Index# 600292/2008 - 5/13/08 @ 9:30AM Preliminary Conference

Echostar v. ESPN & ESPN Classic - Index# 600282/2008 - 5/14/08 @ 4PM Compliance Conference

NFL v. Echostar - Index# 600556/2008 - 6/10/08 @ TBD Preliminary Conference

Office of Commissioner of Baseball v. Echostar - Index# 600856/2008 - 5/15/08 @ 9:30 AM Preliminary Conference

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

cforrest,

I just heard the same thing. That the VOOM channels could come back. (I guess thats why they are still up and running and just not available to customers.

Its going to be interesting.

I would like to see Dish and VOOM work together to combine channels and offer 5 - 7 VOOM channels.

 

[gjh3260]

The only thing I can think of is that they have been monitoring the usage of the voom channels for awhile, and decided that the few viewers that actually watched them were expendable, if they decided to quit over voom.

I dont have any proof that they have been doing this, but it would be quite easy to put something in the firmware of the ViP receivers to do so, and beam the results back with the nightly phone home.

Removing channels without a PR or a warning is BAD BUSINESS in my opinion.

:up

 

[dfergie]

I want them all back even if I didn't watch them all... it's the principle of the thing...

 

[thorphin]

So were you excited to watch someone play Hitman 2 on the original XBOX or is it the Blizzcon 2006 Festival or maybe the 2005 Madden challenge? That channel had ZERO new content. You're better off going to gametrailers.com and watching NEW content.

If I wasn't clear, I haven't YET subscribed to Dish, so I haven't seen GamePlayHD, but what you are talking about it precisely why I watched certain shows on G4 before they removed them. The golden age of gaming is over, in my opinion, and the older games are more exciting to me than the new stuff. If I was really interested in the new stuff, I'd just buy it and play it. The older games are the games that are harder to find and play. Obviously there's a lot of content on the net, but it's not on my TV and in HD.

As I said, I don't expect a lot of people to agree that GameplayHD is worth it. I love the concept, especially since the founders of GHD created the channel in the image that G4 was created before Comcast ruined it after the TechTV merger.

Regardless, it's gone. It may come back (reengineered or not), it may not. The main issue I have is with the way that Dish handled the situation.

Hmm... Hitman2...never got around to playing that... I'd try to dig it out off of eBay or something, but I don't have time to play the game now because I'm too busy playing GTA3 on PS2.