Cablevision satellite TV service gets a reprieve

Thursday, March 10, 2005

By Seth Sutel, The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Cablevision Systems Corp., a New York-area cable television provider, has reached a deal with its own chairman to keep a satellite TV venture running through the end of the month while he continues trying to assemble a deal that would keep the business afloat.

The announcement late Tuesday signaled a cease-fire in a bitter family feud that has rocked the country's sixth-largest cable company. Cablevision CEO James Dolan had earlier sided with other board members against his father Charles, the company's chairman and founder, in voting to shut down the startup satellite venture, called Voom.

Cablevision said in a statement that it had agreed with Charles Dolan to "work cooperatively" to "finalize" the separation of Voom from Cablevision. As part of the agreement, Charles Dolan agreed to fund any costs Voom incurs while he looks for investors.

The elder Dolan, who is still considered a visionary in the media business, partly for his role in founding HBO, had unnerved investors with his plans for Voom, which many believed to be a money pit. Investors cheered when the company said it would shut it down.

Voom, which specializes in high-definition TV channels, has attracted fewer than 50,000 subscribers since its launch in 2003, a far cry from The DirecTV Group Inc., which has 14 million, and EchoStar Communications Corp.'s DISH network, which has 11 million subscribers. Last year Voom lost 1 million on revenues of .9 million.

Nonetheless, Charles Dolan has made extraordinary efforts to keep Voom alive. The company has already sold Voom's satellite to EchoStar for 0 million, but Charles had been negotiating with his son Tom to buy Voom's remaining assets from Cablevision in hopes of keeping it going.

When the two sides failed to reach a deal by a self-imposed deadline of last Monday, the company announced it would close Voom down. Two days later, Dolan dismissed three board members who had voted against Voom and named a fourth to replace another board member who had died.

Cablevision said in its statement that the agreement with Charles and Tom Dolan to keep Voom operating expires on March 31. A company spokesman declined to comment on what options would remain for the service if no agreement to keep Voom alive is reached by that time.

The news was announced after the close of regular stock trading, where Cablevision's shares had fallen 67 cents or 2.3 percent to .62 on the New York Stock Exchange. However, the shares rose 68 cents, or 2.4 percent, in after-hours trading.

Besides the father-son feud over the Voom project, Cablevision is also battling New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg over his proposal to build a stadium on Manhattan's West Side as part of New York's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. The stadium would compete with Cablevision's own sporting and events venue, Madison Square Garden, just a few blocks away. Cablevision also owns the sports teams that play at the Garden, including the Knicks of the NBA and the NHL's Rangers.

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