In the latest episode of the Voom saga, Cablevision Chairman Charles Dolan filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to deny EchoStar Communications Corp. from acquiring, “among other things, the authority to operate a direct broadcast satellite space station on 11 channels at 61.5 degrees West,” arguing in the petition that the granting of the application for acquisition would “directly conflict with the FCC’s specific finding that it would disserve the public interest for EchoStar to acquire any additional capacity at 61.5 degrees West.” Keep in mind that the Cablevision board of directors approved the sale of Voom’s only in-orbit asset, the Rainbow-1 satellite, and other assets of Cablevision’s Rainbow DBS unit in January for $200 million.

In the filing, Dolan said that the company formed to take over Rainbow DBS’ operations, Voom HD LLC, “is in the process of obtaining financial commitments from its controlling investors in the amount of $400 million in cash and credit and it stands ready, willing and able to compete for the purchase of the Rainbow DBS transponders located at 61.5 degrees West, should they once again become available in the market.”

For more on this filing and the latest update to the Voom saga, please see the April 4 edition of Satellite News. For more information on subscribing to Access Intelligence’s satellite industry news and information services, please visit us on the Web at https://www.satellitetoday.com.