Cablevision officially announced the launch of its new DBS service, Voom, Tuesday after a multitude of press reports had already outlined many details.
Scheduled for a nationwide Oct. 15 launch, Voom, as reported, will offer 39 high-definition channels, 21 of which will be exclusive to the service. It will also offer "as many as" 88 regular, standard-definition cable channels, "along with local, digital over-the-air programming," according to the Cablevision release.
Voom will initially broadcast in MPEG-2, to be upgraded to MPEG-4 in Q3 next year, using upgradable Motorola set-top boxes.
Mickey Alpert will lead Rainbow DBS, the parent division of Voom, as senior executive vice president and chief operating officer. Alpert will report to Cablevision Chairman Chuck Dolan. Alpert previously ran his own consulting firm. Alpert's senior management team will include Bill Casamo, executive vice president, marketing and sales; and Jay Aldrich, executive vice president, finance. Casamo held a similar position at DirecTV, and Aldrich led his own consulting firm.
