spacetoday.net: Cablevision to shut down Voom

Posted: Fri, Apr 8, 2005, 8:32 AM ET (1232 GMT)
After a long and contentious battle that at one point pitted father against son, Cablevision decided late Thursday to shut down its struggling Voom satellite TV service at the end of this month. In a brief filing with the SEC, the company said that its board of directors decided Thursday to terminate the Voom service at the end of this month, after an agreement between the company and its chairman, Charles Dolan, to maintain the Voom service expired at the end of March. The board's vote was unanimous, according to Newsday, with even Dolan voting to shut down the company. Dolan has fought with his son, James, Cablevision's CEO, to keep the Voom in operation even after Cablevision sold Voom's only satellite and other assets to EchoStar earlier this year. Last month Charles Dolan and another son, Thomas, signed an agreement with Cablevision that delayed a planned March 31 shutdown of Voom as the Dolans tried to line up financial support for the company and overturn the satellite sale. Voom had fewer than 50,000 subscribers, a tiny fraction of DirecTV and EchoStar, and lost over $650 million in 2004.