Casting Blame and Goodbyes: Voom HD shutting down

Rainbow Media, a division of Cablevision, has announced that it will shut down the domestic operations of the 15-channel Voom HD programming lineup, effective in January.

It’s a sad event for a set of channels that were once the very first set to grace airwaves when the HD TV revolution started. They were once the first complete set of HD channels available on satellite.

A Rainbow spokesman confirmed the decision yesterday in a statement published on several sites.

Cablevision was the only TV provider that carried the 15-channel package, following a contract dispute with Dish Network, which dropped Voom earlier this year. (Rainbow and Dish are engaged in a legal battle over the action still, which won’t be settled for a long time, no doubt.)

Multichannel News reports that Cablevision will replace the Voom channels with other high-def channels when they officially go off the air in early January. The statement adds that Rainbow CEO Joshua Sapan blamed Dish Network’s decision to drop Voom as the reason for today’s action. You can’t make money when no one carries your content.

Despite the shutting down of Voom’s domestic operations, its two channel international division will continue to operate and will not be affected by the shutdown.