Washington — The board of directors of Cablevision Systems confirmed last month’s decision to shut down its troubled Rainbow DBS subsidiary, and advised customers that its Voom satellite TV service will cease to be available on April 30.
The statement came in a filing this morning with the Securities and Exchange Commission eight days past the March 31 deadline that Cablevision had set for chairman Chuck Dolan and his son Tom to come up with funding to buy the business and keep the Voom service running under their Voom LLC holdings.
The Dolans have not commented publicly about the passing of the deadline.
In March, Cablevision said its board has approved an agreement with Chuck and Tom Dolan to “work cooperatively to finalize the separation from Cablevision of its Rainbow DBS operation.”
Several board members including Dolan’s other son, James, who is Cablevision’s CEO, decided on Feb. 28 to close the money-losing operation. On March 1, Chuck Dolan, who controls a majority of a special class of stock with super voting rights, replaced one retired board member and three Cablevision directors who voted against him.
Chuck Dolan had agreed to fund any costs incurred by Rainbow DBS above those that would have been incurred under a shutdown scenario.
At the time, Dolan was optimistic. “If we are able to complete negotiations with Cablevision, we are certain that Voom HD will emerge as a robust new vendor providing a valuable alternative to the two services that now dominate the satellite industry,” read a Voom LLC statement.
