Satellite Updates and VOOM

Saturdays launch of the ECHOSTAR XIV satellite could not have gone any better. The launch looked amazing in the clear skies over Kazakhstan. The proton rocket and Breeze M engine performed their missions well.

The satellite is now on its way to its testing orbit where the bird will be tested thoroughly before it is moved to its permanent home of 119 degrees West Longitude. The ECHOSTAR XIV satellite is expected to be put in operation in mid to late May.

Whats going on with DIRECTV 12?

On Friday afternoon DIRECTV received a STA from the FCC to continue testing out is new DIRECTV 12 satellite. Over the weekend I was contacted by a number of readers worried about the satellite, which is slated to help DIRECTV offer up to 200 channels of HD content.

My feeling on this STA is that this satellite is a very complicated satellite with some new technologies on board. It could be taking a while longer then they expected to test the payload on this satellite. I have heard nothing to indicate that there is anything wrong with this satellite. So for now I urge all diehard DIRECTV fans to remain calm as they complete their testing on this new satellite.

VOOM Wants Over $2.5 Billion from DISH in damages.

The battle between DISH Network and VOOM HD Network rages on. On March 19th VOOM HD Networks requested a trial date from the state of New York.

I find it interesting that in this trial VOOM asked for the trial without a jury. The document also says that VOOM is demanding relief from Echostar in excess of $2.5 billion.

VOOM has had a sorted life, the VOOM channels were used to program the VOOM HD satellite service. The satellite service went off the air on April 30th, 2005 and DISH Network picked up most of the original VOOM HD channels and offered them to their customers, but on

DISH Network removed 10 of the 15 VOOM channel from their lineup on May 12th 2008, claiming that the removed networks were not being watched and we just full of repeats. Dish kept the 5 most watched channels and tried encouraging VOOM to combine some of the removed channels into the 5 surviving ones. The rumor is that VOOM demanded that DISH return all their channels to their lineup immediately or the would have to remove them all. DISH removed the 5 remaining VOOM channels the next day.

On January 20th 2009, the VOOM channels were dropped from Cablevision systems, leaving VOOM with no other United States distribution.

While VOOM HD is no longer available here in the US, it still exists today outside the US. In Canada there are 4 of the VOOM channels available. And in other countries of the world VOOM programming lives on. Countries that have some of the VOOM services include Brazil, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Belgium.

I doubt that VOOM will get a 2.5 billion dollar judgment in this case. I personally think that VOOM was ahead of its time. I like others still miss it and I know that many HD fans wish that DISH and VOOM could work together to bring back some of the programming which has been lost here in the United States, I know some people would do about anything to have channels like Monsters HD and Rave HD back on the air.