NEW YORK (AP) – Stepping up an increasingly bitter family feud, Charles Dolan, the founder and chairman of Cablevision Systems Corp., moved to strengthen his control of the company by naming four new directors after the board went against him and sided with his son James, the CEO, in opposing a satellite TV venture that the father had championed.

Analysts and investors puzzled over what the moves meant for the future of the Long Island-based cable TV company as well as for the struggling high-definition satellite TV service called Voom. The company also disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating recent trading in the company’s shares.

“This has taken a turn from the simply strange to the truly bizarre,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “This appears to be an escalation not just of a boardroom battle but a father-and-son conflict.”

The continuing uncertainty over the future of Voom spooked investors. Cablevision had said Monday that it would shut the business down after failing to reach a deal to sell the remaining assets of Voom to Dolan, but in the regulatory filing Thursday it said it would give Charles Dolan another chance to make a proposal at a board meeting on Monday. A company spokesman declined further comment.

Cablevision shares fell $1.32, or 4.4 percent, to $28.92 in heavy volume on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday afternoon. The shares had been rising steadily in recent months amid expectations the company would shutter Voom and possibly sell its lucrative cable TV business.

Charles Dolan released a statement late Wednesday saying he had replaced three board members and named another one to a spot left open by the recent death of John Tatta, a co-founder of the company. The new directors are big names in the business world as well as architects of previous merger deals. Dolan was able to make the moves since he controls the majority of the company’s voting rights through a special class of super-voting stock.

The new directors are Rand Araskog, the former chairman and CEO of ITT Corp.; Frank Biondi Jr., a former president and CEO of the media conglomerate Viacom Inc.; John Malone, a pioneer of the cable industry and chairman of Liberty Media Corp.; and Leonard Tow, a former CEO of Century Communications Corp., a cable TV company.

Moffett said it was extremely unlikely that the new board members would side with the elder Dolan on the Voom matter simply because of personal connections to him. “The bottom line is that in a post-Enron governance age, whether these guys are old friends of Chuck Dolan, once they’re on the board their fiduciary duty is to the shareholders,” Moffett said.

In addition, Moffett noted that all four of the new board members were experienced deal-makers, suggesting that they were likely brought in to explore opportunities to sell off some or all of the company’s assets, which include highly desirable properties such as 3 million New York-area cable TV subscribers and three national cable networks, IFC, AMC and WE.

Other analysts disagreed, however, saying that the moves suggested that the battle over Voom would continue to drag out. Investors have been skeptical of the venture, which would have put Cablevision in an expensive showdown against EchoStar Communications Corp.’s DISH network and The DirecTV Group Inc. Voom has struggled since its launch in late 2003 and posted an operating loss of $661.4 million on revenues of $14.9 million last year.

The new directors replace William Bell and Sheila Mahony, both of whom recently retired from executive posts at Cablevision, as well as the investment banker Steven Rattner and the late Tatta. In addition, Dolan said he would ask the board next Monday to create a new seat for Brian Sweeney, a Cablevision executive who is also Charles Dolan’s son-in-law.

In December, Cablevision said it would sell Voom’s satellite to EchoStar for $200 million in cash, and, in February, Charles Dolan and his son Tom entered a tentative agreement to acquire the rest of Voom’s assets. However, they failed to consummate a deal by a Feb. 28 deadline.

Cablevision also owns New York’s Madison Square Garden as well as the sports teams that play there, including the New York Knicks and the NHL’s Rangers. Cablevision is also in the midst of a public showdown with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg over Bloomberg’s plans to build a stadium on Manhattan’s West side, which would compete with the Garden. Cablevision has made its own proposal for developing the land.

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