spacetoday.net: Cablevision deal buys time for Voom

Posted: Wed, Mar 9, 2005, 8:57 AM ET (1357 GMT)
Cablevision announced late Tuesday that it has reached a deal with its own chairman to keep the Voom satellite TV service alive at least through the end of the month while he works out a long-term agreement to keep Voom alive. Cablevision, which announced last week it planned to shut down Voom at the end of the month, will stop those efforts through March while Charles Dolan, chairman of Cablevision, and his son Thomas try to work out a long-term arrangement to keep Voom afloat. That long-term deal is believed to involve EchoStar, a much larger rival who bought Voom's only satellite and related assets from Cablevision earlier this year; such a deal could range from canceling the sale to some kind of joint venture, according to the newspaper Newsday. Charles Dolan has fought to keep Voom alive over the wishes of son James Dolan, Cablevision CEO, going so far as to revamp the Cablevision board last week after James Dolan and other members voted to shut down Voom. Voom, which focused on high-definition TV programming, has attracted fewer than 50,000 customers and cost Cablevision hundreds of millions of dollars.