Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I like this part of the review

And this:

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

The only place that seems to be able to regulate SKY seems to be the European Union, Remember the premiership football rights they made sure not one company could buy all the available packages

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Digital Spy EXCLUSIVE: ESPN America may show Premier League.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcas...er-league.html

---------- Post added at 12:12 ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 ----------

Setanta Sports UK fallout: Eurosport outbid Sky and ESPN to win Setanta's PGA Tour rights

Eurosport has the secured TV rights for the 2009 US PGA Tour season which were previously owned by collapsed broadcaster Setanta.

All action from the 2009 Tour will now be aired on British Eurosport and British Eurosport 2 on satellite and Virgin Media.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcas...ur-rights.html

Info from Digital Spy.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

thank god for ofcom forcing sky to give virgin hd. I doubt they will give virgin the 1920x1080i feed though, they will probably only give 1440x1080i that they show themselves. bbchd on virgin is 1920x1080i btw. I reckon sky will ask for crazy prices now from virgin and virgin say its too high then we will have to wait for ofcom to set a good price.

maybe we might get sky sports hd 1-3 :)

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

If you read the review ofcom aren't at all happy with sky's wholesale pricing. Essentially on the premium channels VM makes a loss on each customer that takes them up.

It seems like Ofcom are ready to step in and set the pricing now, there's a page in there that shows the cost-plus price of the channel (essentially cost + reasonable markup), the price sky charge for them, and a range of prices ofcom considers reasonable, and there's a huge difference (up to 20%) between what they charge now and what ofcom thinks they should charge.

I really am hoping that they follow through with this, bringing down the wholesale cost of the channels, and forcing them to wholesale HD at £4.00-6.39/month per sub, would really turn things round for VM (as long as VM can put all the channels on) not just by bringing the service in line with Sky, but reducing their costs and increasing their margins to the level where expansion and improvement would be extremely viable.

Infact, I'd go as far as to say that if they did then there would be no reason at all to choose sky over VM, and VM would have a significant market advantage.

One of the interesting things from reading the review is with the movie channels though, Sky have the subscription vod rights to all the major movie studios (as those rights are tied in with the linear channel rights) this means that they can offer a subscription on demand service for movies... but they obviously don't have the TV platform to do it and only offer a small online service. Ofcom are going to look in if those rights are always going to be tied to the linear rights, or if the movie studios are going to unbundle them.

If they are unbundled, or ofcom force sky to wholesale them as well if the studios wont, then VM could offer an subscribed movies on demand service, offering a massive back catalogue of films from all the major studios. That would put VM firmly ahead of Sky. Who would want movie channels that repeat the same films 10 times a week, when you could subscribe to an on demand service that offers a massive library to choose from?

All of this is exactly why Sky are anti-competative, simply because they cannot compete on a level playing field, they have an inherent disadvantage with their platform, it's great for linear tv, but when you want interactive services and next generation tv services like VOD, it's nowhere to be seen.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I see Sky have no intention of going quietly, this off the BBC story

Anyone have any idea how long they can drag this on for? What legal options do they have?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

It will possible be about 6-18 months to be honest they really do not have any legal ground unless they can prove they are providing them at a good price ie they prove the wholesale cost are is high as they demand

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Just checked Eurosport after Mediaboy's post about the PGA tour got sound but no picture on channel 521, Just phoned faults and they've sent a signal said wait 20 to 25 minutes got Eurosport 2 ok though anyone else having issues?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Years. The final outcome from ofcom won't be until the end of this year, then you're going to see an appeal to UK courts, and an appeal to European courts.

There's no way Sky are going to give up before they've exhausted all their options, because the changes in this review really would destroy their market position.

Funnily enough though, I think that if they took it as far as it can go there's a good chance of a European court ruling they should be broken up into a seperate channel provider and broadcasting platform, something ofcom have no appetite to do.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Update after 25 minutes Eurosport 2 has gone as well whopee :-(

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

They will not take it to eurpeon court for that reason they know if they go to europe. they will say sky have this much power well time to break them up and make them wholesaler and reatiler like bt which would be far worse for them.

however they will go through at least 3-4 courts appeals here and probally commons appeal or whatever they call going ot the goverment.

it will probally be 12-18months after the final publication end of the year, but sky will try make themself look good by offering it to virign much cheaper than now buyt more than what ofcom say, and if virign have there whits about them they will ask for it for 2 years so by the time this all pans out they can then get it cheaper

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

It could take years just like the bank penalties case which start in 2007 and has just been to the lords of appeal (despite the court of appeal refusing them leave to go to the lords).
The lords wont rule until october.
So, if sky stops short of the european court about 2.5 years from when ofcom formally makes it final decision later this year. Spring 2012 sounds about right.

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

Well my eurosport 1 and 2 are back on nothing about the PGA tour on the EPG as per DS forum

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

The reason it generally takes longer for channels to appear on VM is to achieve value for money.

Would you prefer VM to go in quickly and achieve a bad deal for us?

Re: Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2009)
 

I think that the EPG has failed to keep up with the new situation. The Eurosport web site is listing PGA golf at 20.00 this evening and then through to Sat and Sun on Eurosport 2 - channel 525.

--John