Doom for Voom?

[Gregg Lengling]

The president of TVPredictions.com says Cablevision's new satellite TV service is dead on arrival

Washington, D.C. (Oct. 20) -- Cablevision last week launched a new satellite TV service that offers nearly 40 High-Definition TV channels. Called "Voom," the dish is now available for $749 at Sears outlets across the country.

However, Phillip Swann, president of TVPredictions.com, writes in this week's Television Week magazine that "Voom" is doomed. Swann says that Cablevision is making a mistake by targeting the HDTV audience.

"Fewer than 7 million people have HDTV sets, and perhaps as few as 2 million actually have the digital tuners required to receive hi-def signals. Although the HDTV numbers are growing, Voom's target audience is too small," Swann writes.

To read Swann's entire column, click: Doom for Voom?

If you would like to contact Mr. Swann, he can be reached at Swann@TVPredictions.com.

[Tom Snyder]

So how many million customers does a business need to be successful? :rolleyes:

[Gregg Lengling]

Well I guess just look at the numbers:
2nd quarter 2003 subscriber numbers:

Directv     11,500,000

Echo         8,800,000

So it takes quite a few to pay for those 100 million plus satellites and everything else.