Voom, an American digital satellite service, has been put up for sale by its parent company Cablevision, according to the New York Times.

The cable operator, which runs cable systems in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, and also owns cable stations including AMC, announced plans for the service back in 2003. Since launch, Voom offered a different type of service than the other two big DSat players in the States - DirecTV and EchoStar Dish Network - by offering a raft of high definition channels on its lineup.

However, Voom failed to become popular either in terms of subscriber numbers (26,000 at September 30, 2004) or on Wall Street. During the third quarter of 2004, Voom lost $75m.

The decision to sell the troubled unit was reached after some boardroom drama. Cablevision is controlled by the Dolan family - and in this case, Charles Dolan (78-year old founder of the company) was pitted against James Dolan (son of Charles, 49-year old CEO). The senior Dolan was in favour of keeping the unit, while the son wanted to sell. The directors sided with the son.

At present, there have been no announcements as to whether Voom will continue operating. Also, there are no indications as yet as to who will be interested in buying the unit or its satellites.

More on this as it becomes available here on DS.