Rainbow Pulls Plug On Voom HD Service
Shutting Down Suite of 15 Networks
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 12/18/2008 11:16:00 AM
Rainbow Media Holdings, blaming a loss of carriage on Dish Network and the expected lengthy litigation stemming from that drop, is shutting down the domestic operations of its beleaguered Voom HD, its suite of 15 HD networks.
Dish Network had been the largest distributor of the Voom HD services, but it dropped them in May in a contract dispute with Rainbow. That left Voom HD with only one U.S. distributor, Rainbow parent Cablevision Systems Corp., which will replace the HD services, reportedly in late January when they go off.
Rainbow filed suit against Dish Network, seeking $1 billion for what it claimed was Dish’s violation of a 15-year carriage deal, and the tangled case remains in court.
In a memo to employees Thursday, Rainbow president and CEO Joshua Sapan blamed the suit and the scenario with Dish Network for leading to the demise of Voom HD domestically. The Voom HD operation, which includes two networks, will keep its international business running where it reaches 32 million subscribers in 36 countries.
“As you may have heard, Rainbow has made the difficult and painful decision to shut down the domestic operations of Voom, which regrettably will result in layoffs,” Sapan said in the memo. “Voom's domestic business was made possible through an affiliation agreement between Rainbow and EchoStar, which was established in 2005.”
“Unfortunately, earlier this year, a significant legal dispute arose with EchoStar (now known as Dish Network),” he added. “While that lawsuit is progressing, the expectation is that it will be at least a year before any sort of resolution is reached. Therefore, we have been evaluating different strategies and plans for Voom's domestic business.”
Said Sapan, “Unfortunately, as we analyzed the opportunities and challenges in the current environment and the lawsuit, it became clear that we can no longer operate Voom domestically, particularly without EchoStar fulfilling its obligations and providing its support. Some Voom staff will remain at Rainbow to manage the operation of Voom internationally, using our expertise in content development and the depth of our HD programming library to seek new distribution opportunities around the world.”
A Rainbow spokesperson confirmed that Voom’s domestic operation was being closed, but declined to comment further, or discuss how many employees will lose their jobs. But those staffers reportedly won’t have to leave for 60 days.
Cablevision will replace the 15 Voom networks with other HD channels, with that transition most likely coming in late January.
“We will replace these channels with other quality HD programming and there will be no reduction in the number of high-definition channels available to our iO TV customers,” a Cablevision spokesman said. “We currently offer 68 HD channels without any additional equipment or programming fees, unlike our competitors, and expect our HD lineup to continue to expand in the coming months.”
Earler this week, Scripps Networks announced that it had hired Voom HD general manager Greg Moyer as president of Scripps Networks International.
Glenn Oakley, senior vice president of business development at Voom, will take over the international operations for the HD service.
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Today my Rave HD is gone. Singularly the best music channel ever on TV. RIP and thanks. I hope to catch Jools Holland, Gilmour, Soundstage on some other network. Thanks Cablevision, thanks Dish. Thanks for keeping instead more QVC- selling junk jewelry, spanish language and other useless programming.
Richard Valent - 1/20/2009 10:25:01 AM EST -
It is about time. Voom has been dieing for a year now. Now how about spreading some off the content from those channels to IFC.
riffjim4069 - 12/20/2008 6:56:00 AM EST -
Darn! Monsters HD was great! I left Dish when they dropped VOOM and kept hoping that the VOOM HD channels would show up on DirecTV or even FiOS. I wonder how hard Rainbow Media tried to make other agreements work? Or were they afraid of undercutting their litigation with Dish? I think that if they had offered the channels individually then they would have had more success.
Tim Grimm - 12/19/2008 12:06:00 PM EST -
This development makes me wonder if the lawsuit was preventing
VOOM from distributing in the US other than the parent company. It
was odd that VOOM over the past couple of years had no uplink
satellite transmission so therefore cable operators, for the most part,
did not have any access to the VOOM programming via satellite.
VOOM has been running full page ads in several of the trade
magazines for over a year or more promoting their services. As a
cable operator, I called them several times trying to get access to their
programming because their ads would say something to the effect:
"Call today to get connected to VOOM". So I would call the number on
their ads, get voice mail, leave a message, and to this day for over a
year never received one call back.
If VOOM would have had a preferably C-Band uplink, cable operators
would have eagerly taken their HD services.
L Libal - 12/19/2008 8:41:00 AM EST -
VOOM was great! Especially MONSTERHD.
Dish Network SUCKS for causing Voom to go under.
Dish Really Blows - 12/19/2008 12:28:00 AM EST
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