General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2018)

[jfman]

I personally consider Virgin a major TV platform, that does not mean that Sky do.

From the Cambridge dictionary:

more important, bigger, or more serious than others of the same type

Two of those three are subjective.

I’d be over the moon if SA joined because I could ditch my 6 monthly £20 Now TV subscription. I’m just not holding my breath (and for the avoidance of doubt I firmly blame Sky).

[Media Boy UK]

TiVo has reveal that Sky Cinema Comedy will be known as Sky Cinema Adam Sandler from June 11th to June 18th.

[muppetman11]

Blame them for what , they launched the channel , pay vast amounts for content on it so it's really upto them how they see fit distributing it.

BT have it's UHD channel and AMC channel they keep for its own customers , I fail to see the difference.

---------- Post added at 18:55 ---------- Previous post was at 18:54 ----------

Originally Posted by Media Boy

TiVo has reveal that Sky Cinema Comedy will be known as Sky Cinema Adam Sandler from June 11th to June 18th.

Can't wait for that , months of poorly rated comedies.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

TiVo has reveal that Sky Cinema Comedy will be known as Sky Cinema Adam Sandler from June 11th to June 18th.

Oh dear another gimmick l fail to see the point of..

[jfman]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Blame them for what , they launched the channel , pay vast amounts for content on it so it's really upto them how they see fit distributing it.

BT have it's UHD channel and AMC channel they keep for its own customers , I fail to see the difference.

---------- Post added at 18:55 ---------- Previous post was at 18:54 ----------


Can't wait for that , months of poorly rated comedies.

Vertically integrating content with platform and artificially inflating the price restricts consumer choice. In any other market such restrictions wouldn't be tolerated.

I'm on the side of the consumer, only fanboys wouldn't be.

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by jfman

Vertically integrating content with platform and artificially inflating the price restricts consumer choice. In any other market such restrictions wouldn't be tolerated.

I'm on the side of the consumer, only fanboys wouldn't be.

I'd argue without being able to differentiate your platform you just have the same offering from everyone so whilst the only option is to reduce price this also results in seeing less players leaving the remaining platforms ultimately able to charge what they want.

Tell me an industry out there that doesn't have some form of exclusivity.

Purely personal opinion but I do believe Sky Atlantic will end up on VM at some point in the future.

Originally Posted by jfman

Vertically integrating content with platform and artificially inflating the price restricts consumer choice. In any other market such restrictions wouldn't be tolerated.

I'm on the side of the consumer, only fanboys wouldn't be.

Less of the “fanboy’ insults, please, otherwise infractions will be issued.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

I'd argue without being able to differentiate your platform you just have the same offering from everyone so whilst the only option is to reduce price this also results in seeing less players leaving the remaining platforms ultimately able to charge what they want.

Tell me an industry out there that doesn't have some form of exclusivity.

Purely personal opinion but I do believe Sky Atlantic will end up on VM at some point in the future.

If you think Sky Atlantic will become available do you think Virgin will suddenly be willing to pay more or that Sky will charge less? If Sky are charging less what market conditions would cause the value of the content to drop?

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by jfman

If you think Sky Atlantic will become available do you think Virgin will suddenly be willing to pay more or that Sky will charge less? If Sky are charging less what market conditions would cause the value of the content to drop?

The competitive landscape has definitely made things harder for traditional providers like Sky and Virgin , the rise of streaming services from the likes of Amazon and Netflix has made the traditional providers look to each other for help.

Didn't Sky and VM recently sign a deal for use of Sky Adsmart on the Sky channels on Virgin maybe this could be a good sign although I guess at this stage it's only Sky and VM who know , for us it's just guesswork.

[Chloé Palmas]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Do you have any friends/relatives with Sky ? They are allowed 4 devices on Sky Go - use one - it's how i get Sky Sports coverage.

You know, weird as it is the amount of devices that you can put it on, makes the mystique of the whole thing, wane more and more. When you had 4 or 5 networks and it goes to 900 it is like a big candy store but within like a month 95% of them are utterly useless to you.

Same with where you watch it...the fact that you could only watch it on TV was tough case you missed it. Now being able to record, and playback you just hate advertisements more and more.

With the phone / tablet capacity to watch it, it just gets to the point of "now I can watch it anywhere - on the move"...and then the diminished value kicks in on that front, too.

*On that last one, I am not 100% sure if it is just me though - my least spec'd TV is 65 inches, 4K / 1200 motion flow / 3D (and on and on - HDR etc) so watching on a 5 or 6 inch screen is not exactly worth the same.

I.e. if I want to watch something the least amount of energy I can put into it is to move my ass onto a bed / couch and fire up the TV to watch it.

That is the problem for me ; content in this day and age just sucks these days - TV programs and films just are not what they used to be.

tbh I don't get what all the fuss is about Sky Atlantic, just watched Patrick Melrose - v.disappointing, and rest seems to be imported US tripe, much like the rest of Sky's output.

I don't think that Sky's output is all bad but they have got into the production end of drama and series late. The films are all produced by one of the big 5 and they excelled at sports which they themselves covered and dominated but the production of TV drama is something they lack.

I tried one series on Sky Atlantic and it sucked - urgh I pay 80 + a month for this for like one network / show and the recording facility.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Chloé Palmas

You know, weird as it is the amount of devices that you can put it on, makes the mystique of the whole thing, wane more and more. When you had 4 or 5 networks and it goes to 900 it is like a big candy store but within like a month 95% of them are utterly useless to you.

Same with where you watch it...the fact that you could only watch it on TV was tough case you missed it. Now being able to record, and playback you just hate advertisements more and more.

With the phone / tablet capacity to watch it, it just gets to the point of "now I can watch it anywhere - on the move"...and then the diminished value kicks in on that front, too.

*On that last one, I am not 100% sure if it is just me though - my least spec'd TV is 65 inches, 4K / 1200 motion flow / 3D (and on and on - HDR etc) so watching on a 5 or 6 inch screen is not exactly worth the same.

I.e. if I want to watch something the least amount of energy I can put into it is to move my ass onto a bed / couch and fire up the TV to watch it.

That is the problem for me ; content in this day and age just sucks these days - TV programs and films just are not what they used to be.



I don't think that Sky's output is all bad but they have got into the production end of drama and series late. The films are all produced by one of the big 5 and they excelled at sports which they themselves covered and dominated but the production of TV drama is something they lack.

I tried one series on Sky Atlantic and it sucked - urgh I pay 80 + a month for this for like one network / show and the recording facility.

I agree with you on most of this, Chloé. It is good that you can now watch your programmes on different devices because this gives you flexibility. However, like you, everything is so much better on the big screen and that's how I choose to watch virtually all the time.

As for Sky Atlantic, the quality of their programmes are certainly better than on Sky 1. Today's programming from 9am include House, Without a Trace, Blue Bloods, The West Wing, CSI, The Tale (film) and Westworld. Show me one other channel that can match that for dramas. Daytime on BBC1 is just the usual daytime trash such as Homes Under The Hammer, Bargain Hunt, Doctors (and so on) and apart from one good drama (My Girl), the evening programmes are just the regular tired old stuff such as The One Show, EastEnders and Holby City.

So I don't think Sky Atlantic is a bad channel at all - it is certainly the best for dramas.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I agree with you on most of this, Chloé. It is good that you can now watch your programmes on different devices because this gives you flexibility. However, like you, everything is so much better on the big screen and that's how I choose to watch virtually all the time.

As for Sky Atlantic, the quality of their programmes are certainly better than on Sky 1. Today's programming from 9am include House, Without a Trace, Blue Bloods, The West Wing, CSI, The Tale (film) and Westworld. Show me one other channel that can match that for dramas. Daytime on BBC1 is just the usual daytime trash such as Homes Under The Hammer, Bargain Hunt, Doctors (and so on) and apart from one good drama (My Girl), the evening programmes are just the regular tired old stuff such as The One Show, EastEnders and Holby City.

So I don't think Sky Atlantic is a bad channel at all - it is certainly the best for dramas.

The Drama channel is pretty good as well..

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I agree with you on most of this, Chloé. It is good that you can now watch your programmes on different devices because this gives you flexibility. However, like you, everything is so much better on the big screen and that's how I choose to watch virtually all the time.

As for Sky Atlantic, the quality of their programmes are certainly better than on Sky 1. Today's programming from 9am include House, Without a Trace, Blue Bloods, The West Wing, CSI, The Tale (film) and Westworld. Show me one other channel that can match that for dramas. Daytime on BBC1 is just the usual daytime trash such as Homes Under The Hammer, Bargain Hunt, Doctors (and so on) and apart from one good drama (My Girl), the evening programmes are just the regular tired old stuff such as The One Show, EastEnders and Holby City.

So I don't think Sky Atlantic is a bad channel at all - it is certainly the best for dramas.

It's really not the best when most of the examples you gave are all cancelled shows.

Westworld being current is actually made by HBO and others by the other US networks. CSI and house are so old and been off air for years.

The Likes of BBC ITV and CH4 do have their own great dramas and doing need to rely on US imports.

Hardly a great example. Besides I rather enjoy homes under the hammer.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by denphone

The Drama channel is pretty good as well..

I agree, but they are older and 'softer' dramas in the main. I record from there from time to time but I am not interested in most of their output.

Today's output, for example, includes Casualty, Juliet Bravo, The Bill, Lovejoy, Last of the Summer Wine, Hi-de-Hi, Are you Being Served, London's Burning, Soldier, Soldier, Lovejoy, Judge John Deed, New Tricks, Birds of a Feather. So the programming itself is not bad, but most of it is old or the formats are looking rather tired these days. Worth keeping an eye on for the occasional goodie though, particularly at weekends.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Broadcastnow is reporting that Virgin media UK are looking into having an EPG relaunch with one idea being having all the +1 (like ITV +1 and Quest +1) having their own dedicated section. (cant post link do to broadcastnow paywall)

I wish I could just rearrange the EPG as I like, like I can do on Freeview, but I've long given up on that feature ever being available on cable. I actually like the +1s right next to the main channel.

This press the coloured button to access the HD version of a channel is rubbish too. The HD version should the be the default now and the SD variants get pushed out of the way.