Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

Not true.

The deal that was eventually thrashed out was revenue neutral for both companies, valuing the Sky Basics and the Flextech channels via a convoluted, face-saving formula that effectively made them worth the same.

VM's decision to sell Flextech to Sky came some time later. There are threads on both topics in this forum somewhere. If I have a few minutes to spare I'll see if I can dig them out.

Edit

Here you go:

Sky Basics return to Virgin Media, November 2008:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...tchet-sky.html

Virgin announced it was beginning the sale process in February 2009, but everybody had known for quite some time that their strategic intention was to offload those channels. They didn't announce the sale to Sky until over a year later, in June 2010, after much speculation that the asking price was too high:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_....E2.80.9309.29

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

We're really not all that far from agreement. Sky bundle channels just as VM does, just as BT does. In order to get the HD I want in XL I have to pay for a load of +1s and lifestyle channels I'll never watch. VM don't do this to me out of nastiness, they do it because if some channels were exposed to your 'pick any channel' model, would close to the detriment of their viewers. So we all cross-subsidise channels on Sky, VM, and YouView.

I think perhaps we're heading down a blind alley with the supermarket analogy but I do have the option of going to another supermarket to buy the special pack of Weetabix just as we all (well, most of us do) have the option of getting SA from Sky or Now TV, but I don't, I weigh up what I want and do my shopping in one place forgoing the delights of the 50 free offer. I don't then moan that Weetybangs limited or Tesco have been nasty to me, I just put it down to the normal way of things in all aspects of business. That's life.

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

This, Sky Atlantic is def coming to Virgin/well err might be coming soon/wont ever be here/could now be year 2020, must be one of the most boring posts ever on Cable Forum, I know its all speculation and people like to think that maybe one day all will be rosy in the Virgin TV garden, but it's not looking like Atlantic will be in that garden!

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

more chance of it snowing in hell forever than VM getting SA

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

I think forever is maybe taking it a wee bit too far Dave...:D

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

Let's be more realistic with the comparison. Tesco signs an exclusive deal to sell petrol but won't sell it to anyone unless they buy all their groceries from them too. Surely nobody would complain about that...

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

ok 100 years non stop then is that better :D:D:D

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

Those terrible twins of pessimism you and Dave strike again.:D

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

Not particular good news tbh. All ppvs are now going to sky box office. I think there used to be 4 a year free.

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

realist Den SA is on all that it going to be on don't kid yourself

---------- Post added at 13:47 ---------- Previous post was at 13:46 ----------

sky believe in getting ripped off better

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

It was said with a hint of sarcasm. It was what entered my head after reading those 'Sky Television ate my gerbil' posts. :D

---------- Post added at 14:07 ---------- Previous post was at 13:59 ----------

It's not something I follow closely, but didn't I read in here that there was an expectation that WWE were going to move to IPTV?

If that were the case, wouldn't these have been PPV anyway?

But no matter, If you don't want to pay, don't, if enpugh people agree, It'll soon be back on regular Sky Sports. Ask Amir Khan. :D

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

Definition of Hell - worst nightmare/fears coming true.
So technically if someone has a fear of snow then it would snow in their Hell :p:

However Sky Atlantic is not on any lists i've seen so it's very unlikely it'll be on VM anytime soon.

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

from the guardian http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...er-league-deal

Mark Sweney
theguardian.com, Thursday 30 January 2014 07.54 GMT

Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City
BSkyB's profits have been dented by the cost of its three-year £2.3bn Premier League deal. Photograph: Joe Toth/BPI/Rex Features
BSkyB has reported an 18% fall in pre-tax profits to £527m in the six months to the end of December, as investment in new services and Premier League rights costs incurred in its battle with BT Sport hit the broadcaster.

The company's adjusted operating profits, the measure of profit most closely watched by analysts and investors, fell by 8% year on-year to £595m.

Total revenues grew by 6.3% to £3.75bn as the company hailed a strong performance in the runup to Christmas.

Jeremy Darroch, the chief executive of BSkyB, indicated that BT's push in to Premier League football had not hurt the company, with viewing of Sky Sports at a six-year high.

"It has been a noisy period in terms of competition but you can see across the board our business is continuing to power ahead," he said.

"Our financial performance was strong in the first half and we remain on track for the full year. We are moving through a year of investment in which we are absorbing the one-off step up in Premier League costs well."

BSkyB, which on Wednesday unveiled a five-year deal with HBO to secure the future of hit shows such as Boardwalk Empire, reported strong customer growth across the board.

The company added 77,000 TV subscribers in the quarter to the end of December – the broadcaster includes sign-ups to its Now TV online service in this figure – taking its total TV customer base to 10.5 million. This was the strongest quarter in three years.

Broadband subscribers, the focus of its battle with BT Sport, grew by 110,000 to 5.1 million in the last three months of the year.

Investors are keeping a keen eye on the company's churn rate, the proportion of customers that leave Sky, to gauge the impact of BT's deep-pocketed spending on building its TV service.

Churn was 10.8% across the six months to the end of December, up 0.5% over the same period last year, but actually down 0.2% in the final three months of the year.

There has been speculation that BSkyB might need to add a mobile offering to boost its range of products to customers, either by launching its own service from scratch or doing a deal with an existing operator.

When asked about a potential deal with Vodafone, Darroch did not explicitly deny that talks had taken place, but said that speculation of a merger or acquisition were "wide of the mark".

"We talk to lots of different companies about lots of things, it is part of the ecosystem of the market," he said. "I'm not going to provide a running commentary [on our plans]. The speculation I've seen in the press is wide of the mark, I'll leave it at that."

Darroch admitted that the prospect of a move into mobile has been something BSkyB has looked at, and he hinted the company may make a move into the sector, but that it was not "imperative" to its plans.

"Mobile has been something that we have looked at from time to time and over the sweep of time I wouldn't rule it out," he said. "We stay focused on portability of content. If we see an opportunity at some point we would be open to that. But it is not an imperative for the business."

Darroch also addressed the issue of bidding for the next three-year Premier League TV rights deal, which is expected to kick off later this year.

BSkyB was forced to pay £2.3bn to stop BT from securing the lion's share of matches in the existing deal, a 40% increase, and with further inflation a certainty in the next auction Darroch warned that there is a limit to how much rights are worth.

"Of course the Premier League is an important set of rights, we get that, we will go in with a clear view of what we seek to achieve. Whenever [the auction] arrives we will be ready and in good shape for the process. With any set of rights there is a price beyond which we don't think it provides value. That was the case with the Champions League [which BT secured]. It accounted for just 3% of viewing and there were better ways [to invest]."

The company saw huge growth in its premium paid-for service Sky Go Extra, which allows customers to register up to four devices and download TV and movies to watch offline for £5 a month, with 258,000 new subscribers in the final quarter. Total subscriber numbers hit 643,000.

"We had a very good first six months of the year as we reaped the benefits of our broader-based approach to growth," said Darroch. "In a consumer environment that remains challenging, customers continued to choose to take Sky products in ever greater numbers in the runup to Christmas."

The company said that usage of its on-demand services has trebled and the number of movie rentals through its Sky Store service doubled.

Average revenue per user, a key statistic watched by analysts, grew by £11 in the final quarter to £570.

The proportion of subscribers taking three products from Sky remained flat quarter on quarter at 36%.

Sky also said that it has reached six long-term sports rights deals including the 2017 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand; Super League rugby for five years from 2017; a five-year deal with wrestling giant WWE from 2015; a seven-year deal for live cricket from New Zealand, including two England winter tours; and a four-year deal with the SFA starting next year for the Scottish Cup and international friendlies.

BSkyB's share price fell 2.6%, 22.5p, in early trading to 844p

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

Using a vpn you'll get around that by subscribing to WWE Network for about £7p/m + £3p/m for vpn :D this is the way i'll be watching the ppvs etc.

Re: Coming soon to Virgin TV 2014
 

I read today that WWE network will be available online in the UK later this year , not sure how true this is.