Virgin Media to drop Sky One

thor

Lakeuk wrote:

But he can watch that on Channel4

Initially when I heard about this I thought that I may have to miss out on quite a lot but on thinking about it I realised that Sky One is mainly 'the Simpsons' channel which is THE most overrated programme around and one I have no intention of watching. 24 is another I am not going to miss and was glad that Sky bought it up. The only show I will have to download is Lost but would suffer this sacrifice if it means the Sky lose out on revenue.
I expect that the majority of people will not switch and will turn to downloading instead. This is an opportunity for ntl to challenge Sky for popular shows in the future and even if they do not get them all, at least they will knock up the price.

pchoc

thor, the simpson works on many levles and stands up to repeated viewsings because of the talen t and wit that it is saturated with. Sky is thr market leader and arguably built the paytv amrket in uk, the fact u say ntl shows shat virgin have a long way to go. competion is always healthy but remeber branson did music box in the past centruy and its not around, sky has worldwide talent, contacts and motivation. but we can make choices based on our unique needs
skyone does have nip/tuck which for guest stars alone is fantastic btw

Enterprise_1701C

Where can we download shows such as Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis - that's all I'm bothered about really!

daymo

Are Virgin telling the whole truth? I wouldn`t trust either of the companies ,at the end of the day, they both want to extract your pennies! Sky reckon they haven`t tried to double the fees as Virgin claim ,so its probably best to wait until the handbags have been withdrawn until getting too hot under under the collar and playing the old "lets kick Murdoch" game!


btw I have just moved back to sky from ntl and I am far happier with the choice of channels,broadband and telephone(caller i.d again...woohoo)

go4it

I'm I the only one to see this fiasco for what it is... underhand tactics by Virgin.

Virgin has a history of pitting its witts against the big guns. It always comes across in the media that Virgin are being bullied, customer is losing out etc.

The fact is that these 'events' are cleverly orchestrated by Virgin. Remember the BA Fuel Price outcry last year, suggestions were made that Virgin Atlantic had whistleblowed and orchestrated the story (even though Virgin Atlantic were apparantley guilty of the same thing).

The story currently is one sided. Virgin have taken out full page ads in the papers today highlighting the case.

Virgin are the first to attack other companies, but when companies try to attack them the lawyers come out in force. They are more than happy to criticise companies, but hate being criticised themselves.

devild_2

If Virgin don't carry these channels and are concerned about their viewers will they cut the costs of the subscriber packages as they won't be paying SKY as they are currently doing ?

AMO

It's a bit of both. One of the major reasons for merging NTL with Telewest etc is to gain more muscle to get larger volume discounts. NTL have in the past been able to negotiate some fairly lucrative deals for Sky One. In all fairness, most people on Sky pay mainly for Sky One. If you are an NTL customer and are mainly interested in Sky One, you could still get the channel bundled into a minimal package or have it added for £1. Things may have changed here and there, but the cost for NTL to have Sky One has always been cheap in the past.

Sky want to increase this. Most Virgin Media customers probably don't care about the other channels, but Sky One is significant. However, Sky also have a dilemna. If Virgin Media do not carry Sky One, Sky will lose a lot of viewing figures. Sky needs revenue so that it can wipe out the competion when bidding for programs such as 24 and Lost. Maybe its a good thing that Virgin Media take a stand. Having said that, they could lose big time as well.

As the future is likely to be more download TV and with FreeView gaining momentum, this is the best time for Virgin Media to negotiate a long term deal. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Absolute genius whoever at Virgin Media is doing this!

AMO

bilbob_2

Might wanna look into this a little deeper...
Virgin media in the form of their flextgech channels did a cut price deal with Sky to allow their channels to be shown on sky on the understanding that a similar deal would be dine in return. Sky on the other hand turned the screw on Vm and demanded a larger than reasonable increase in costs. They are simply trying to force VM's prices UP to make Sky seem more reasonable and get people to subscribe via satellite.

Good on VM in my opinion. I suspect VM subscribers will either see a price reduction (unlikely) or more probably future spending on programs increase to compensate. This could likely see a new start for VM in terms of their own channels.
And as for timing, in the middle of the series... when else would be the best time to make maximum effect?

Oh, and for those fearing missing programs... google 'bittorrent'
I shall say no more...:)

meerustar

I think those of you who are saying 'I'm halfway through such and such series, I'm moving back to Sky' is music to Sky's ears. Thats what they want you to do and thats what you;re thinking of doing.

DON'T fall into their trap. Virgin Media know what they are doing .. just bide your time!

samtheman_2

I'd suggest everyone waits until the 30th the day they are due to go off. Ntl have went through this before. It may or may not happen. There are benefits for both either way. A weeks a long time in politics.