Rainbow DBS Plows Ahead As Cablevision Studies Alternatives
Despite Cablevision’s recent decision to weigh “strategic options” for its Rainbow DBS venture, its Voom HD satellite service is plowing ahead. Voom has taken bids for 2nd-generation receivers and launched a regional promotional strategy targeting 12 markets.
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Voom -- which launched in late 2003 and had about 26,000 subscribers as of last Sept. -- has been a money drain on Cablevision. The parent recently postponed a planned spinoff of Rainbow Media Enterprises that would have included Voom along with the Independent Film Channel and America Movie Classics. But Voom expects in the next several weeks to choose manufacturers for sourcing a 2nd generation of SD and HD standalone receivers as well as a combo HD tuner/PVR, Edgar McLaughlin, senior vp-systems integration, told us last week at the Las Vegas CES. It will expand the lineup of HD channels to 70 from 39 by March as it starts using 6 transponders aboard SES Americom’s AMC-6 satellite at 72 degrees W., he said. “I know the rumor mill has the alternative solutions being negative, but you see we're adding channels, the PVR is coming out and we're expanding the service,” McLaughlin said: “We have a multiyear growth plan that we continue to pursue.”
While Motorola is making Voom’s current receivers, Voom likely will pick different manufacturers for each of the 3 planned models, which won’t arrive in the market until late this year, McLaughlin said. The new receivers will have many of the same features as the current devices, including a PVR with a 250 GB hard drive.
The new models will feature a more integrated design that reduces 2-3 chips to a single IC including Broadcom’s MPEG-4 device, McLaughlin said. The new design will yield a “significant” savings in the cost of manufacturing the box, but McLaughlin wouldn’t elaborate. The Voom receiver was originally priced at $749 but has since been reduced to $499. Cablevision has said it doesn’t expect Voom to begin delivering MPEG-4 programming before Sept. “at the earliest.”
“It’s a more cost efficient version of essentially the same product,” McLaughlin said. “Instead of plug-in modules, they will all be on the mother board and the form factor will be smaller.” Voom’s current PVR, a prototype of which was shown at CES last year, will start beta testing in Feb. and will be distributed at a “controlled pace” 2nd quarter, McLaughlin said. Its software is “about 95% complete” and will be finished in time for the test, he said. The 2nd-generation hardware could be built by most manufacturers “within a few months” of receiving the contract, but “the job is getting the software at the leading edge of video to perform the way we want it to for our customers,” McLaughlin said.
Voom has boosted its marketing presence since Nov. in regions where a lot of HD programming is available. Among these is southern Fla., where Brandsmart has been promoting Voom by applying a $300 Cablevision-funded instant rebate toward the purchase of an HDTV with a 6- month commitment to the service’s basic package, which carries a $49.95 fee, McLaughlin said. “It’s a model we've been very successful with and one we're looking at doing more of,” he said. “Whether its exactly the same way we structured it there or whether we refine it a little” hasn’t been determined, McLaughlin said.