kex63 said:
I think you guys may be looking at this wrong...the marketing won't be to the cable companies it will be to the consumer....I look for all the originals to move to AMC-6 and possibly create more..Cablevision gets out of Satellite DBS, existing programing comments for carried channels are dropped, Satellite contruction contracts are gone, and deals may be in place with both of the other DBS companies to offer Voom Originals as an add on stand alone service and cable customers could get in on this too.. the customer base is the current customers..if you were to conduct a pole I would bet to say that 60% of the voom customers already have another service and use Voom for the unique HD stuff.
If I lowered the price only offered the originals are part of the the other DBS's, but it still took a Voom receiver and Dish (either the 61.5 or 72) I believe it will go on AMC-6 at 72 because there is now going to be a Rainbow DBS connection as the CEO of SES Americom on May 2.
I think this is the only way you could make it work..also you don't take a hit on the Voom receivers as they will become reusable as the stand alone box..not only is it revenue producing for RainbowMedia, but it give both D* and E* away to immediately up the HD capabilities.
This has been done in the past as well... I am sure that someone out there remembers USSB before D* aquired the company. That could end up being run as a service much like USSB was back in the mid 90's.
I believe that C.Dolan had no choice but to vote for the shutdown of V*, lets face it, no Sat. no V*! Call me a dreamy optimist, but I feel that since CV had contracts for more birds that he also may:
1. take over the contracts himself and launch another bird and start a new HD DBS company under a new name. (After all, our STB's are even capable of MPEG 4)
2. Maybe he has collaborated with some of the new folks on the CV board (Malone?) and they decide it would be easier to allow V* to go out a business and start a new privately held company so that there would be no conflict of interest or possible liability issues from the CV stock holders or the sec. With the Sarbanes-Oxley act in effect, executives have to be careful how they make transactions, and if V* was spun-off and went like gang busters, the sec and the CV stockholders could both cry "foul play", which could lead to lawsuits against Dolan and even the threat of indictments from the Government for un-ethical insider activity.
3. We know that the DVR was close to release so if the new company could start up with a DVR as a lease option, and with the free install special like V* had been running before the shutdown announcement then I would think the numbers would grow at a much greater rate than what V*'s sub numbers have grown. Maybe V* was just a learning experience, and now that C. Dolan knows he can obtain a larger number of subs by leasing equipment with a free install, then he would think that he could grow the new company much faster than V*.
I am not sure what other sat. location CV was going to be placing the birds, but maybe the other locations would be more favorable than Rainbow-1's location of 61.5.
If C.Dolan's plan is to start a new DBS service, then you can be sure that they are going to want every STB back, because new face plates could easily be put on these boxes. If this is the case then the directive may be for Motorola to buy these boxes back from CV, and then sold back to C.Dolan's new DBS service. That would take CV completely out of the loop of any connection to a newly formed private company so that no one could say that he was trying to pull a fast one on the CV stock holders.
Maybe I am being overly optimistic, and many people have said on this forum that they would never be a sub again for any new service that C. Dolan started, but I for one would jump on the opportunity and place my order for service the first day it was announced!.... and I am sure many of the people on this forum would also!!
All speculation, but I just had to get it all out.