Originally Posted by OLD BOY
(Post 35866069)
I don't think it is right to describe VM as 'leeching' off other companies, theone. People who watch pirated material are leeching. Virgin Media pay for the material they broadcast to their subscribers quite legitimately, and this is Liberty Global's strategy. You don't need to own channels to get the content you want.
However, there is a problem with exclusive deals that restrict some content to specific providers, and unless there is future legislation to prevent this from happening, Virgin's only defence is to acquire exclusive content of its own. Again, it does not need to actually own channels to achieve this.
Virgin could change their strategy to compete directly with Sky in this way if they wanted to. Remember that when Sky withdrew its channels from us, we very quickly found Virgin 1 coming to our screens, and the same could happen again. John Malone is busily acquiring interests in quite a number of content providers, of which Lionsgate is particularly interesting, and I wouldn't underestimate cable's ability to put up some impressive rival channels at short notice if needs be. I would be surprised if a contingency plan was not already in place.
There are a lot of moans from VM TV customers at present, mainly because of the slow Tivo and the lack of Sky Atlantic. The V6 is poised to resolve the slowness issue and Sky Atlantic is solvable. However, if VM make the decision not to acquire Sky Atlantic, then in my opinion it needs to go all out to acquire as much exclusive quality content as it can lay its hands on.
Sky has major problems of its own to look forward to. They are unlikely to get a new exclusive HBO deal given the new strategy being adopted by that company and when existing rights with film studios are due to expire, they will be going head to head with some big players, such as Netflix and Amazon. Additionally, rights to the football premiership cannot be guaranteed for long, with increased competition being brought to bear from other players with deeper pockets. Malone's strategy is a pretty good one when seen in this light.
I do agree with you that the three big players will be Sky, Virgin Media and BT into the future, but I don't see Virgin falling behind BT.
As for the V6, I don't believe the adverse comments that we are hearing from detractors who don't know any more than the rest of us. I think it will be a good alternative to Sky Q, although whether it will be better we will find out when it is launched.
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