Who's Voomin' who?
If you're one of the approximately 40,000 subscribers of Voom, as I am, you no doubt have heard at least bits and pieces of the father-and-son squabble that could ground the fledgling TV satellite service by the end of the month.
To summarize: Charles Dolan, the founder and chairman of Cablevision, dreams up a plan to enter the satellite business in an effort to grow beyond the company's 3 million or so subscribers. Because there are already two entrenched satellite providers, Dolan emphasizes high-definition content, and Voom's 39 HD channels dwarfs the lineups of EchoStar and DirecTV.
The problem is that Voom has been hemorrhaging like a character from "Kill Bill." So much so that Jim Dolan, Charles' son and Cablevision's CEO, has to make a tough call --continue to support his dad's dream or side with Cablevision's shareholders, who had already infused Voom with $660 million and were hesitant to pay more.
Recently, Jim sided with investors, sold the Voom satellite to Echostar and posted a notice on the Voom Web site that it was exiting the business. End of story? Not quite. Charles set up his own Web site saying Voom would still be taking installation orders and began to negotiate a way to use his personal fortune to keep Voom afloat. (See the screen shots from the dueling sites here.)
The whole sordid saga has been laid bare in a New York Magazine story dubbed "Oedipus at the Garden." It's worth a read even if you don't know what Voom is, and that would make about 295,060,000 of you.