Cablevision formally announced that it will shut down operations of its Rainbow DBS direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service at the end of the month, thus bringing to an end company Chairman Charles Dolan’s spirited effort to rescue the service, which does business under the Voom brand name.

The announcement of the shutdown was made public in a Form 8-K submitted by Cablevision to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing noted that the company and Dolan were unable to reach an agreement to save the DTH service by the March 31 deadline. The company’s board of directors confirmed its shut down decision at an April 7 meeting and “provided management with specific directives on shut down implementation including advising customers that the Voom service will cease to be available on April 30, 2005…The Board of Directors instructed management to continue to analyze whether its Voom 21 channels can be marketed to other satellite and cable providers.”

For more on the aftermath of the Voom shutdown, please see the April 18 issue of Satellite News. For more information on subscribing to Access Intelligence’s satellite industry news and information products, please visit us on the Web at https://www.satellitetoday.com.