Voom, the satellite television service provided by Rainbow DBS, upped the marketing ante against rivals Dish Network and DirecTV by giving away to its subscribers something for which subscribers to its competitors must pay: viewing the return of Mike Tyson to the boxing ring. However, Satellite Today also was told that brand-new Voom subscribers wouldn’t have their service cut over in time for this event.

This is not the first time Voom has offered a pay-per-view boxing event free or at least at a deep discount (a company spokeswoman said a recent boxing PPV event was offered for $1, when typical boxing PPV events can range in price anywhere from $30 to $50 per subscriber).

Voom’s brand of marketing has got to stick in the minds of boxing fans. So far, no information is available as to whether the free or deeply discounted boxing PPVs generated any spikes in Voom’s subscriber figures following the events.