Virgin Media to drop Sky One

organic_wanabe

pollyskettle, how did you manage to get through to VM. Everytime I have tried I've been cut off!

pollyskettle

organic_wanabe wrote:

pollyskettle, how did you manage to get through to VM. Everytime I have tried I've been cut off!

150 then option 3 then 2 then 3 iirc - rang at 9.10 on Thursday morning and was cut off with 'our switch cannot connect your call', tried again straight away and call was answered at 9.30 - I think I got away lightly with a 20 minute hold - was expecting much more! The guy I spoke to was very cheerful until I said about the significant change in our tv provision and then he got the right @rse :rotfl: was REALLY stroppy with me after that. Mind you I just keep being smiley and cheery which I think made him worse!

SurfBowlSC

I think I asked earlier if it would be really worth Branson trying to buy the rights to Lost, 24, Premiership Football et al when they are up for renewal. The answer is a resounding NO!

The problem that he will encounter is that of subscription availability.
There are around 2 million VM customers at the moment.
I dread to think how many Sky customers there are.
Sky is openly available to anyone in the UK who can fit a dish to their wall - which only really rules out people living in flats.
VM is only available to people who reside in areas which have cable.
I'm not sure what the coverage is across the UK, but I do know that it's not where I live....

Trying to outbid will simply be Branson cutting off his nose to spite his face.

And we now see that Branson is going to take Sky to court about it.
Ooooh diddums old beardy!!

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a43535/virgin-threatens-sky-with-court-action.html

thor

SurfBowlSC, your hypothesis will fail because if he wins the rights, Branson will offer all those programmes to Sky and Sky will have no choice but to pay the price as they have made a big fuss about virgin not paying the going rates and thus depriving their customers.
The more I think about it the more it seems to me that Sky have scored a huge own goal here

darwin-rover

SurfBowlSC wrote:

The problem that he will encounter is that of subscription availability.
There are around 2 million VM customers at the moment.
I dread to think how many Sky customers there are.

VM has about 4 million actually , 3.3 million of which have cable . Sky has about 8 million . So VM are only half as big .
Yes Sky is avaliable to anyone , so 8 million might be their saturation point . If everyone else wanted Sky they would have it by now . VM cable is only avaliable in major cities , imagine how cutomers they could get if they covered more . They are only limited in expansion by the cost of digging up some streets . Putting a satellite into space aint cheap !

samtheman_2

It was digging the cables that ran the cable companys into big debt. If they bought the sports they would be forced to supply it to sky as I believe its covered by something called the rate card meaning it must be supplied at a fair price. Hence why vm will never lose sky sports. My bet for more premiership football is setanta sports who are buying everything. Wouldn;t be suprised if vm bought them.

TaBunny

Urgh I would rather of lost all the football and sports than Sky one lol it would get OH away from the tv when the footie is on it's like it rules his life

GeoThermal

I'm pretty sure in the advertising stuff VM sent me it said that TV would be offered to non cable customers at some point. I guess they mean to your PC.

AMO

Well, now Sky are advertising the fact that cable customers can't get Sky One etc. It's all over the radio!

I get the feeling that Richard Branson's going to lose this battle.

I've always like the fact that cable users can get Sky One fairly cheaply as part of a minimal package. With Sky, the cheapest package is 2 mixes at £15 (okay there are special offers to new customers etc, but normally its £15).

That is expensive mainly for Sky One which is what most people go for.

AMO

johno69

As mentioned earlier, VM will possibly need to pay little Rupert his money, and as ever increase the packages to accomodate the extra cost, making SKY look even more attractive. Be warned though Sky will eventually increase their prices to match and claim to still be cheaper..

Greedy Greedy SKY!!