VOOM - 10 HD Movie Channels, Why?

[Sean Mota]

The more I thought about this, the more it did not make sense. These 10 HD channels, to me, sound like a good promotional package to start VOOM. I can see that in the future VOOM might shrink these 10 channels and put them in 5 or less. This will give them space for 5 extra HD non-exclusive channels. I also remember from the Press Conference that Josh Suppan said that these 21 exclusive channels will not remain the same. V* will evaluate them and make changes along the way. I am sure they will.

 

[mike123abc]

It probably has more to do with compression than anything else. By having a movie channel they can compress extensively in advance each movie. This allows them to deliver the HDTV image in a lot less than 19.2 mbit/sec. Probably closer to 7-8 mbit/sec. They can probably put 6 of these channels on a single transponder. Regular HDTV channels (with live action) run about 2-3/transponder.

Voom is extreamly limited on transponder space with 11 transponders + 2 on loan from the FCC until they are auctioned (assuming they win the auction).