Would Voom improve if someone like Mark Cuban Bought it?

[Eric_C]

I made this comment as a joke in one of the threads but then after all the Voom problems and the back and forth on whats good, whats not, and what needs to be fixed I thought this might make sense.

They seem to have the classic people in the middle doing the job syndrome. The Management is clueless, the people at the bottom(CSR, Billing, etc) are clueless, but someone in the middle must have some knowledge to keep things going. Alot of companies are run like this, the management is too afraid of the smart people in the middle so they keep them down and nothing every improves.

What they need is a good kick in the ass from the top down to fix problems and put a realistic timetable on improvements. People perform for certain types of management, mostly the ones who know what they are doing. I know where I work, and no its not D*, when the boss says something, we do it, on time, period, no ifs, ands, or buts, its done. But then again, he only asks certain people for things.

I think possibly Mr Cuban would bring that kind of enviroment, and if not, clean house to put the right people in place.

Forget the legalities and all that, just would having someone like that in charge fix Voom's problems faster than the current management will?

 

[Gr8Reb8]

This is just my opinion, but I think there are to many managers at Voom that think they still are a Cable Monopoly for this to work. Once they get everyone on board that they are an upstart and need to be better at many things (not just the number of HD channels running concurrently), they could make it.

 

[voomvoom]

Absolutely No... What makes you think Mark Cuban would do any better or quicker...

 

[Eric_C]

Because at least he is someone who understands the technology and most of all, understands the quality of HD.

Everyone here seems to have the feeling that if all they had were tulips blooming in the dark at 22mpbs then they'd be happy.

I think content, PQ, and technology would be more important with someone like him in charge.

As far as customer service, well you need CS alot less when the content, PQ, and technology WORKS, when the billing department can put 2 and 2 together and still get 4 everytime.

The easiest way to low tech support costs is to put out a product that does not require support.

Unfortunetly those little nuggets of wisdom is totally lost on someone who spent 8 years in school learning to create an oversized bureaucracy to do the simplest things. I'd much rather have someone in charge who can use common sense versus what they were taught is the right way to do things.

The simplest solutions are generally lost on upper management, they must heap tons and tons of crap ontop to build an empire and make themselves seem more important than they are. They are too afraid to do it the simple and easy way, even though it may work, the guy in the next office is creating tons of work, screwing everything up, but he looks far more productive than the manager who is doing a good job enough to take off for Golf in the afternoon.

I'd take the second guy, but he is a threat to the establishment, so he generally quits and ends up opening up his/her own business and being far more successful.

 

[Sean Mota]

There's more forces than just wish. Mark was the first to have baseball in HD and MLB took over and gave those contract to InHD. He will never get pro-fessional Basketball games because there are too many forces that will drive him out of the negotiations. The same can be said about Premium movies. The giants HBO, Starz, etc. will not let him or anyone get those. So as much as anyone would like the content that you and I like, they won't get it because those are already taken by the big boys. So in a way, Mark and VOOM are stuck with second hand programming and not top notch programming. Mark has said that he was on the red when he started and I believe that it was not until he outlet HDnet to other providers he was not making enough money. So with this said HD is very expensive to produce. Not only do you need license agreements that you may never get but in order to produce it yourself you need big $$$.

 

[squicken]

What's so obvious to me is Dish and Voom MUST merge or more likely Dish should buy Voom. I don't know if I want it to happen, but both companies are eating Rupert's dust right now. Dish could get the extra capacity it needs immediately, and Cablevision would get rid of a money pit. I don't think it would happen b/c of the egos involved. Also, Dolan would probably want too much money.

As for ramifications or practicalities, who knows. They'd have satellites all over the sky, and the FCC says no more 2 dish setups. So they'd have to run the same channels on 2 satellites, which would be redundant.

 

[voomvoom]

Because at least he is someone who understands the technology and most of all, understands the quality of HD.

Everyone here seems to have the feeling that if all they had were tulips blooming in the dark at 22mpbs then they'd be happy.

I think content, PQ, and technology would be more important with someone like him in charge.

As far as customer service, well you need CS alot less when the content, PQ, and technology WORKS, when the billing department can put 2 and 2 together and still get 4 everytime.

The easiest way to low tech support costs is to put out a product that does not require support.

Unfortunetly those little nuggets of wisdom is totally lost on someone who spent 8 years in school learning to create an oversized bureaucracy to do the simplest things. I'd much rather have someone in charge who can use common sense versus what they were taught is the right way to do things.

The simplest solutions are generally lost on upper management, they must heap tons and tons of crap ontop to build an empire and make themselves seem more important than they are. They are too afraid to do it the simple and easy way, even though it may work, the guy in the next office is creating tons of work, screwing everything up, but he looks far more productive than the manager who is doing a good job enough to take off for Golf in the afternoon.

I'd take the second guy, but he is a threat to the establishment, so he generally quits and ends up opening up his/her own business and being far more successful.

Eric_C, I agree with all of the above, but you got to remember Mark Cuban is the guy who preaches 1080i for best PQ in HDTV is the only way to go and then does a program for ABC in 720p... so, can he be trusted... but, if that were to happen, at least we would get HDNET and HDNET movies... and I would definitely go for that... I've never seen either, so I don't know what I'm missing... or if I'm missing anything... except HD and I'll take all I can get...

 

[Seawaves]

How much control does Mark Cuban have over a show on ABC, owned by Disney and run by the biggest control freak in Hollywood-Michael Eisner?

Zero. Don't blame Cuban for 720.

 

[barth2k]

I'd like to see some Steve Jobs (in his prime) type of guy put in charge of Voom. Someone who is driven, a little nutty, believes in the HD cause and will push the company to the max. He may crash and burn, but what the heck, it's better than fizzling out, which Voom has a good chance to do.

 

[CKNA]

Eric_C, I agree with all of the above, but you got to remember Mark Cuban is the guy who preaches 1080i for best PQ in HDTV is the only way to go and then does a program for ABC in 720p... so, can he be trusted... but, if that were to happen, at least we would get HDNET and HDNET movies... and I would definitely go for that... I've never seen either, so I don't know what I'm missing... or if I'm missing anything... except HD and I'll take all I can get...

Waht a heck are you talking about?. Benefactor was all done in 1080i using HDCAM. It is going to be broadcast in 720p as it is what ABC uses. After it finishes on ABC it will be rerun on HDNET in 1080i.

 

[vurbano]

Waht a heck are you talking about?. Benefactor was all done in 1080i using HDCAM. It is going to be broadcast in 720p as it is what ABC uses. After it finishes on ABC it will be rerun on HDNET in 1080i.

ANd it will look much better on HDnet.

 

[vurbano]

What's so obvious to me is Dish and Voom MUST merge or more likely Dish should buy Voom. I don't know if I want it to happen, but both companies are eating Rupert's dust right now. Dish could get the extra capacity it needs immediately, and Cablevision would get rid of a money pit. I don't think it would happen b/c of the egos involved. Also, Dolan would probably want too much money.

As for ramifications or practicalities, who knows. They'd have satellites all over the sky, and the FCC says no more 2 dish setups. So they'd have to run the same channels on 2 satellites, which would be redundant.

Yup. I agree. Dish has no bandwidth left and is buying space like voom is. Its so obvious these two need to merge to compete. The two dish issue is a big hurdle though.

 

[CKNA]

I made this comment as a joke in one of the threads but then after all the Voom problems and the back and forth on whats good, whats not, and what needs to be fixed I thought this might make sense.

They seem to have the classic people in the middle doing the job syndrome. The Management is clueless, the people at the bottom(CSR, Billing, etc) are clueless, but someone in the middle must have some knowledge to keep things going. Alot of companies are run like this, the management is too afraid of the smart people in the middle so they keep them down and nothing every improves.

What they need is a good kick in the ass from the top down to fix problems and put a realistic timetable on improvements. People perform for certain types of management, mostly the ones who know what they are doing. I know where I work, and no its not D*, when the boss says something, we do it, on time, period, no ifs, ands, or buts, its done. But then again, he only asks certain people for things.

I think possibly Mr Cuban would bring that kind of enviroment, and if not, clean house to put the right people in place.

Forget the legalities and all that, just would having someone like that in charge fix Voom's problems faster than the current management will?

Running a couple channels has a lot less problems than running a satellite company. When running satellite company you not only depend on yourself but vendor that supplies equipment. I blame Motorola for the crappy box. Still Dish Network boxes are pos also. There is guarantee that it would be any better than it is now. Just look at Dish Network. They still have pretty much have the same management but now they suck and keep saying and lying that there is no compelling HD content to add.

 

[CKNA]

What's so obvious to me is Dish and Voom MUST merge or more likely Dish should buy Voom. I don't know if I want it to happen, but both companies are eating Rupert's dust right now. Dish could get the extra capacity it needs immediately, and Cablevision would get rid of a money pit. I don't think it would happen b/c of the egos involved. Also, Dolan would probably want too much money.

As for ramifications or practicalities, who knows. They'd have satellites all over the sky, and the FCC says no more 2 dish setups. So they'd have to run the same channels on 2 satellites, which would be redundant.

I disagree. Dish is the worst run company right now. The keep lying about no compelling HD programming to add. If they got Voom they would probably remove most of HD exclusive programming and as contracts run out the rest.

I had Dish for many years and disconnected them. I got tired of their lies, horrible equipment which right now is probably worse than VOOM as far as HD goes. Dish already more bandwith than Directv and when replacement for AMC2 is launched they will have a lot more.

I do not know what you are calling biting dust but adding HD network feed that very few people can get is nothing spectacular. When Directv will add StarzHD and other HD decent channels and not just keep saying that they will, we'll talk then.

 

[squicken]

I know E* announces this week, but I think D* recently announced 435k net additions last quarter. I wasn't referring to HD only, but overall market share of DBS biz. I guess will find out if E* is aslo profiting from cable's decline. Voom's recent financials reveal they're ripe for the taking by somebody.