New effort to save Voom

[Gregg Lengling]

Charles Dolan moves to shrink Cablevision's board and oust 3 more who ordered him to shut satellite service


Charles Dolan (PHOTO BY MICHAEL GEISSINGER)
 
BY HARRY BERKOWITZ
STAFF WRITER

April 1, 2005

Cablevision Systems chairman Charles Dolan plans to oust three more directors who had ordered him to shut the Voom satellite TV service that he is trying to rescue, the company disclosed yesterday.

The disclosure came on the same day that the board's interim agreement to extend the life of Voom expired. The satellite venture's uncertain fate has sparked an enormous feud between Dolan and his chief executive son, James, who wants to kill it.

Despite the agreement's expiration, the board did not meet yesterday to resolve the three months of turmoil. The company did not say whether the board would meet today.

On Monday, in an extraordinary action that defied the board, Dolan asked the Federal Communications Commission to block Cablevision's deal to sell Voom's sole satellite to EchoStar Communications for $200 million - a deal signed by James Dolan in January. Charles Dolan also personally pledged $400 million to resuscitate Voom.

If Voom is not immediately ordered shut, the planned further shakeup of the board could give Charles Dolan greater sway in determining the satellite service's fate, possibly enough to force Cablevision to hand Voom over to him.

But without the satellite that is being sold to EchoStar, which is not willing to alter the deal, it is not clear how Dolan could keep Voom operating, and analysts do not expect the FCC to side with Dolan.

Dolan and his son Tom, Voom's chief executive, have refused to shut the service, which has attracted only 40,000 subscribers, had $661million in losses last year and is given little chance of success by analysts and several board members.

The Cablevision disclosure included a letter written by Dolan to the board on Tuesday, informing directors that he plans to reduce from six to three the number of them who are approved by public shareholders - rather than by him - at an April 18 meeting. All six public-shareholder directors were among those who had ordered Voom shut.

Dolan said the six current public-shareholder directors would nominate three for the new board. He had indicated earlier that he would exercise his right to name 75 percent of the board.

Dolan's plan would shrink the board from 15 to 12 members - nine chosen and approved directly by him and three approved by public shareholders.

Early last month, Dolan ousted three board members who had ordered Voom shut and hand-picked five new ones: son-in-law Brian Sweeney, who is Cablevision's senior vice president for e-media; Liberty Media chairman John Malone; former Viacom chief Frank Biondi; former ITT chairman Rand Araskog; and cable pioneer Leonard Tow.

In the new letter, Dolan said he believes the four outside executives would qualify under New York Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission "independence" requirements to serve on the board's audit and compensation committees.

The current members of those committees are public-shareholder directors Victor Oristano, who signed a letter early last month warning Dolan to stop soliciting new Voom subscribers; former New York State economic development director Vincent Tese; former Chase Securities managing director Thomas Reifenheiser; and Vice Adm. John Ryan. Regent Capital Management chairman Richard Hochman and law firm partner Charles Ferris are the other public-shareholder directors.

[StarvingForHDTV]

This is getting ridiculous.  It's time to pull the plug.  Stop fighting it.

[Hophead]

Stop fighting for the most HD content anywhere.  Anyone with an HDTV should be rooting for Voom whether you subscribe or not, you should not hoping it fails.  I had Voom for several months and I can tell you that picture quality of all channels not just the HD channels put TWC and D*TV to shame.  The reason I cancelled was because of our local FOX 6 which I could not, no matter how or what I tried, pick-up a signal.  I could get FOX out of Chicago, but I would have had to watch the Bears instead of the Packers.  Since one of the reasons my wife ok'd the HDTV was to watch the Packer games I had to make a choice.

Once FOX 6 upgrades their antenna and I can receive their OTA broadcast I would go back to Voom in a heartbeat.

Also, they have a dvr that blows all other dvrs away,  they are waiting to release it until they know their fate, but it has 3 tuners and a whole house solution built-in.  They unvieled it at the CES this year and it got rave reviews.

So stop rooting against Voom and start pulling for it!

[StarvingForHDTV]

It just doesn't make sense to me to waste hundreds of millions of dollars to make 40,000 or so people happy.

[AndrewP]

This is getting ridiculous.  It's time to pull the plug.  Stop fighting it.

What is ridiculous? 40 HD chanells? Better PQ? No upfront costs for up to three HD receivers?
I have Voom since August 2004 and my only regret is that I did not get it before that date.
177 satellite chanells (no shopping BS), all local OTA (I have Fox6 here), probably I can get Chicago too with a little bit stronger antenna (I will try it this summer).
I love Voom and I don't understand when somebody who never had it and doesn't want it (that is OK, BTW) is trying to impose his opinion to everybody else.
Voom - continue fight until the V! :wave:

[sp44again]

It's called stability. I don't see that in Voom. We're up, we're down, we're up.

[StarvingForHDTV]

Enjoy it while it lasts Andrew.

I know that hundreds of millions of dollars can do a lot to feed people who can't afford to eat or even help out with a disaster like the December tsunami in Asia.

Is it ridiculous to spend that much to keep 40,000 customers happy?  I guess that is a question everybody has to answer for themselves.

[Hophead]

Enjoy it while it lasts Andrew.

I know that hundreds of millions of dollars can do a lot to feed people who can't afford to eat or even help out with a disaster like the December tsunami in Asia.

Is it ridiculous to spend that much to keep 40,000 customers happy?  I guess that is a question everybody has to answer for themselves.

Some people think it is ridiculous to spend $3000 or more on a TV, I don't.  

Both D*TV and Dish spent way more than Voom has to get started, was that ridiculous.

People thought Charles Dolan was nuts when he started HBO, who's going to pay for that they mocked him, was that ridiculous.

Spending millions on new cell phone technologies could feed the starving, yet it is done!

This is America and the consumer wants if not demands choices, God Bless men like Charles Dolan who are willing to take risks, and if he is willing to lose millions of his own money to try and bring the most and the best HD experience to the masses then why should you care, oh yeah there are starving children in China.

[gparris]

I am amazed at Dolan's fever for HDTV...even if misplaced with large losses to himself and son...still great to be a pioneer with so many HD channel offerings.

My only hope it he does keep Voom alive or a part of it so all of us get more HD channels from at least our own providers, if anything else and his failure, should it occur with Voom closing down, not be interpreted as a failure of HD channels providers everywhere in future deliveries.

[jerbear]

Voom will be shut down April 30.
Check there web page
Jerbear