VOOM to open its first retail store in Twin Cities

[Gregg Lengling]

July 4, 2004 - The VOOM satellite television service, which specializes in high-definition programming, will soon open its first retail store in Ridgedale Center, a shopping mall in suburban Minneapolis. The store will occupy temporarily vacated space, and will be open only from around July 8 until the end of August.

VOOM began selling its service to the public on October 15, 2003. It's no secret that early sales have been slow, with the service reporting only 8,000 subscribers nationwide in its first six months of operation. Several reasons have been given for the slow start, including the decision last year to have VOOM systems sold exclusively through Sears stores. Another important factor is that while sales of high-definition televisions sets are continuing to set record numbers, there remains a lack of awareness on the part of the public of high-definition programming. Presently, only a relatively small percentage of consumers are actually receiving high-definition programming from over-the-air, cable or satellite sources. "Seeing is believing", according to Jeffrey Johnson, National Sales Manager for VOOM. "It's impossible to show people what's so great about high-definition television programming unless they get a chance to actually see it for themselves," said Johnson. The new store will have large, comfortable viewing areas and at least six large plasma screen televisions showing VOOM programming. VOOM personnel will be present to answer questions or to help customers sign up for the service.

The Twin Cities store will be a test-run for VOOM, which plans to open around ten stores nationwide before Christmas. While no announcement of future store locations has been made, Diane Wentworth, Vice President of Strategic Marketing for VOOM, described California and the Dallas-Ft.Worth area as among locations being considered. When asked how the success of the Twin Cities store would be evaluated, Wentworth said, "Both sales and instant customer feedback will be very important factors." Long-term, VOOM would like to have its product placed with big-box retailers like Best Buy. That desire is being hampered at present by exclusive contracts with other distributors and low consumer demand. As customer awareness and demand are major factors in retailer's decisions on the brands they carry, VOOM is hoping to bolster both with the new retail venues.

According to Wentworth, plans for future development of the VOOM service will include concentrating on continued development of unique and compelling programming. At present, the service has a lineup of more than 35 high-definition channels, including 11 exclusive all high-definition channels, plus ESPN-HD, Discovery HD Theater, Bravo HD+, a 10 channel movie package called HD Cinema10, and premium movie channels including STARZ! HD, Encore HD, Showtime HD, Playboy Hot HD, ESPN HD, HBO HDTV and Cinemax HDTV. The service also includes more than 80 of the most popular cable channels in standard-definition (SD) and 18 digital music channels.

Source: HDTV Twin Cities