Well, this changes the landscape quite a bit! VOOM had a small, but dedicated following, as well as the biggest assortment of HD offerings, many of which were VOOM exclusives. Alas, VOOM was an idea probably too far ahead of its time, so its satellite was sold to Echostar (owner of Dish Network) and its programming terminated at the end of April. Speculation was that the HD channels that VOOM operated (some movie channels, one for extreme sports, another for design and style, another one for music, etc.) would expire with the VOOM service.

But, Dish announced last week that 10 of VOOM's HD channels would be added to their existing HD service. This vaults Dish to the head of the pack as far as HD offerings go, and puts pressure on Directv, which has limited bandwidth from which to expand their HD service until their new satellites go into service sometime next year. And supposedly Dish will add 11 more of VOOM's HD channels early next year.

Directv has touted that they will have capacity for 1,500 HD channels when their satellite upgrade is finished, but there's a catch. The new HD channels will be broadcast in MPEG-4, which is not supported by Directv's current generation of satellite receivers. Furthermore, the new receivers needed to support MPEG-4 have not even been developed yet. Basically, Directv cannot add to their limited HD service, and when they do, it will require that existing HD customers replace their satellite receivers -- whenever those receivers come out.

Not sure how it work with Dish, but from the sound of things, they have a big opportunity right now to capture a sizable chunk of the HD market. They already increased their capacity by acquiring VOOM's satellite, and now they're expanding the programming that they can offer. Looks like a very interesting and rapidly shifting market over the next couple of years, and with HD-DVD and Blu-ray on the horizon, I think HDTV is finally poised for its big push.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/echostarvoom050205.html