Virgin Media to drop Sky One

Zebedee69

Its no real suprise Sky are trying to use every weapon in their power to stop Virgin/NTL expanding.

History shows how good Richard Branson is at taking something (eg: NTL) that has so much potential (The technology at NTL is far better than Sky) and then using that potential to make a huge impact. NTL's TV On demand system is the best and the bandwidth setup is available to Virgin in a way Sky's Sat system cant handle, and their cable broadband can take upto 30megs with enough investment, something BT can only dream of.

The problem with NTL of old was lack of money/resources. With some new funding and Richard at the steering wheel its only a matter of time before Virgins offering is far better than SKY.

Sky are used to getting their own way in the broadcasting game. Il always remember what they did to poor old On Digital. Not many people know this but its pure luck NTL didnt follow the same path (They were locked in the same bidding war)

Luckily Richard is a smart guy, not scared to have a go at Ruperts empire. I can see Virgin bidding high for future seasons of Lost etc etc. As well as using their UKTV Empire to launch new shows. Also, whats stopping Virgin pulling the plug on UKTV with Sky????????

Lady_K

I have virgin/ntl upstairs and sky downstairs but I cancelled sky as they wouldnt continue my half price offer, it goes off on 23 march.

I will also go on the free virgin tv if I dont get any decent offers with them too they charged me full price for the tv and broadband last time and I don't know if they will put it back again.

One thing that has always bugged me is the remote control with virgin its terrible and everything is slower and harder to do on virgin. If they are going to change stuff I hope they do something there

C_Ronaldo

also virgin own the living tv channel

nej

Virgin own 50% of the UKTV channels.

They own all of LivingTV, LivingTV2, Bravo, Trouble, FTN and maybe a couple of others.

samtheman_2

nej wrote:

Virgin own 50% of the UKTV channels.

They own all of LivingTV, LivingTV2, Bravo, Trouble, FTN and maybe a couple of others.

Sky just recently got a long term deal for these channels at a reduced rate.

samtheman_2

TaBunny wrote:

Spoke to cust services again this morning, apparently virgin are in the process of creating their own news channel to rival and replace sky news, also she said and I quote 'all content which customers lose which is not directly made by sky will be regained and replaced in the near future by virgin'. Hmm so maybe they will battle it out for the rights to show all the top shows. Good on Branson, going to stay with them.

Someone knows more than others! I don't know about the news channel nor that quote but I'd expect them to both try and gain quality content.

Lady_K

How much % does Richard Branson own of the virgin/ntl? As I understood that its still NTL but that Branson only has a small % for the name so how much is all this to do with him anyway then?

JulieBarlow

samtheman wrote:

Someone knows more than others! I don't know about the news channel nor that quote but I'd expect them to both try and gain quality content.

There were reports that Virgin have got the rights to show a lot of the big American shows (24, Lost, etc.) on their on demand service but not until August so yes they have got the rights to them but Sky got the rights to show it exclusively first.

thor

As I said before, this will be a huge own goal for Sky cause not only will they lose advertising & programming revenue but Virgin will start to bid up prices for shows that Sky have previously aquired with little oppostion(e.g. the disgraceful way Channel 4 sacrificed Lost to keep the tedious Desperate Housewives).
Sky have always maintained that they want Virgin to pay a fair price for thier content, well maybe now Sky will get their chance to so the same when Virgin enters the fray.

crazy_guy

Sky one and most digital channels are utter tosh!! I have the basic 5 channels and have no intention on paying a subscription to watch tat!! The only programs i would bother watching is 24 and stargate and both of these are available on dvd and i either rent or buy!!