It's In The News: a central thread
 

It's In The News: is a general thread to replace She tells it like it is.
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/10...l#post34325919
as there seems to be some question as to weather its allowed to make your general news sighting posts there under that topic thread and the OP has not made comment as to his original wish.

to be clear:this thread topic IS setup by me, and is intended to take any and all external news posts you deem interesting even the odd non VM news story now an then, (but it might be better to make another all subjects It's In The News: 2 thread elsewere ;) and link to it from here), and i ask that it remain so.....

as far as im concerned its perfectly fine to pull off any news post made here and start another thread to continue that topic, links back here might be nice to :D

why did i do this, im bored around here lately and thought it might help start new readers posting their thoughts and idea's as the less traveled news URL's get an airing here hopefully.

so to begin: (now go find yours and post them, even the shy readers too) ;)
------------------------------------------------
http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/cgi-b...action=display
Virgin Mobile co-founders resign
"
Virgin Mobile co-founders managing director Alan Gow and deputy managing director and Joe Steel have resigned. [img]Download Failed (1)[/img]


Steele leaves next month while Gow will depart once a successor is in place.

Both men were both co-founders of Virgin Mobile in 1999 and have been responsible for steering the company’s development before and during the launch of Virgin Media.

The changes reflect the integration between Virgin Media’s cable operation and Virgin Mobile, particularly in distribution and IT. However, Virgin Mobile will continue to exist as a brand and business unit in its own right...."

--------------------------

http://www.lightreading.com/document...26390&site=cdn
"
Virgin Revamps DNS Strategyhttps://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2008/09/22.gifJUNE 13, 2007https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2008/09/22.gifDiscuss >
Virgin Media (Nasdaq: VMED - message board) says a small investment in new domain name server (DNS) technology it's deploying should make its broadband services appear faster to customers and make its network more secure.

The U.K. cable operator, known as NTL before it adopted its new name earlier this year, is "investing a few hundred thousand pounds, much less than £1 million [$2 million]" on new DNS equipment, which translates domain names into IP addresses, from Nominum Inc. . (See Virgin Media Picks Nominum and NTL Relaunches as Virgin Media.)

The new gear, and the way it's being deployed will have an impact on Web page response times and network security, says Keith Oborn, the operator's Network Systems Product Architect.

Here's why. Oborn says both NTL and Telewest, the two U.K. cable operators that merged in late 2005 and then subsequently acquired Virgin Mobile (hence the new name), were both already using Nominum's Caching Name Server technology, though in a slightly different setup.

(See NTL & Telewest: Together at Last! and NTL Takes Virgin.)
"We decided to revamp the DNS architecture for the relaunch as Virgin Media as, while Nominum's technology does exactly what it says on the tin, we had vulnerabilities in both legacy systems, which we're addressing by deploying a distributed architecture" and an inter-server communication technique called BGP anycast, says Oborn.

He says NTL previously had "two large DNS clusters with load balancers, but these created bottlenecks," which slowed down the time it took for domain name lookups to be executed.

Now, though, "we are distributing them around the edge of the network, and by September we will have 50 deployed, far more than we will actually need to meet traffic demands.

Any one server will likely only ever be five percent busy, so if one fails, no one will notice, and we have tested this.

It would take a lot of them to fail simultaneously to have an impact and the chances of that happening aren't even worth calculating," says the Virgin Media man.

The new setup will kill off any bottleneck problems and result in a better response time -- 10 milliseconds across the Virgin Media backbone. ..."

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Any topic not regarding VM will be off topic in the area which it is posted of course

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6734833.stm bbc news link of steming losses by VM prob posted before but posted now to stay on topic in your thread ;)

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/item/56673/254/260/3
"
Sky reignites public feud with Virgin Media

13-Jun-07

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/downl...82/sky-use.jpgBSkyB has reignited its public war of words with rival Virgin Media, claiming cable customers "deserve better". The marketing push comes just days after Virgin Media announced the launch of Virgin 1, a TV channel aimed to challenge Sky One.

The satellite giant has taken out full page adverts in the national press outlining what it says are the differences between Virgin Media and Sky.

The ad reads: "If you're a Virgin Media customer, no one could blame you for feeling disappointed or let down. Many of you were loyal to ntl:Telewest and were told things would get better."

It says cable customers are "missing out" on hit shows such as Lost and 24 and are "probably paying over the odds" for broadband and phone services. Sky withdrew its basic channels including Sky One and Sky News from the cable platform in February this year after the two companies failed to reach agreement over the cost of carriage. ..."

---------- Post added at 16:54 ---------- Previous post was at 16:53 ----------

indeed, ;) hence the 'it might be better'....

---------- Post added at 16:56 ---------- Previous post was at 16:54 ----------

give a little clip of the url though, is it werth clicking to read the whole thing...

---------- Post added at 17:36 ---------- Previous post was at 16:56 ----------

ohh the Virgin Mobile co-founders guys, they had no other jobs to go to apparently....

seems odd to leave without new high management jobs to walk into, interesting

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle1928479.ece
"Virgin Mobile loses top two executives

Two co-founders of the mobile company, Alan Gow and Joe Steel, quit the Virgin Media group with no job to go to

Robert Lindsay
...
Virgin Media said that the "changes reflect the ongoing integration between Virgin Media’s cable operation and Virgin Mobile, particularly in distribution and IT".
Related Links
Virgin Media director steps down

• Virgin Media loses nearly 50,000 customers

It stressed that Virgin Mobile would continue to exist as a brand and business unit in its own right. But the mobile arm has not shown an outstanding performance since its takeover by the US-listed cable company.

Figures for the first three months of the year showed that Virgin Mobile lost a net 61,000 subscribers quarter on quarter while revenues dropped £10.7 million to £141 million, although Virgin stresses that it has won contract customers while losing less profitable pay as you go ones.

There have also been reports that Virgin Mobile's heavily advertised TV handset, known as the Lobster, has not sold as well as hoped. ...
"

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

It's not BGP anycast. :)
(and there's no inter-server communication but we'll let that one go ;) )

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

I remember Mr Oborn well, amongst other things for cutting off management to the whole of Swansea with one of his projects.

I guess it'll be ISIS anycast then, though that works just as well but is certainly not an inter-server communication protocol. About bloody time you chaps got around to using anycast anyway slackers!

How are you Munkeh?

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Heh.. he has a singularly unique approach to systems architecture ;)

That'll be a family fortunes *bap-barp* for ISIS, but these are only going to advertise downwards from the POPs so.. :D

And yes it's about time we went anycast, and does mean VM will have one uber caching DNS platform when rollout is complete. Still just one small piece that most people wouldn't even think about that is now honkingly spec'd and scalable.. (99% of people don't even know the impact these systems have on their connectivity, and the chaps involved never get kudos for most of the stuff that's deployed that actually makes the 'tinternet work on this scale for this many customers).
The rest of the systems infrastructure to follow suit I hope, (beancounters obviously not throwing their abaci in the mix), still Keith's keeping me busy with his "make this fluffy cloud idea work please" requests. Next.. potato powered cars and anti-gravity flying rabbits would you believe.. all in the name of research and a faster more stable broadband connection (ok thats not true, the rabbits are actually frogs). ;)

Oh and I'm fine... :D (would my guess be correct that Brick Lane is one of you daily haunts?)

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Munkeh and the guys :tu:

nice to see the under belly at work ;)

all i really want is multicasting to the BBC AVC streaming trials multicast servers (and its like) to work, and we can then build on that VM user wide multicast into the future....

any multicast fluffy cloud idea from this Keith in the pipeline then or doesnt he know what that is and how its a good thing?,

or perhaps someone somewere in VM have a a reasonable idea of its potential and will put it in place (even as a baguley trial)sometime soon?.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Cough..would the phrase "he has a singularly unique approach to systems architecture" mean he's a kakhead hangover from NTL? Why am I still paying this losers' wages???

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

interesting point there NTLVictim ;)
it would be interesting to see some more response so keep it up guys.

in other news:

'Cybertill ticked all our boxes,' , so whats wrong with it guys ;)
http://www.itbsoftware.com/pr/14605
"
Virgin Media Chooses Cybertill Epos For New Stand-Alone Stores

Published 14th June 2007
http://www.itbsoftware.com/new/image...20Thurrock.jpg
EPoS technology company, Cybertill Limited, has revealed that its point-of-service software is driving Virgin Media’s first own-fascia stores and underpinning the retailer’s plans for expansion.

Virgin Media operates in 100+ ‘shops-within-shops’ in Virgin Megastores nationwide. After its acquisition by NTL Telewest last year, it now has five stand-alone stores as part of a strategy to create a nationwide chain.

Virgin Media’s new distribution strategy and the requirement to support Chip & PIN processing prompted an evaluation of its incumbent EPoS system. The time was felt right to move to a more contemporary and functional system and, after considering a number of alternatives, the cybertill solution landed the contract.

Delivered as an ASP service over a virtual private network, cybertill reduces the cost, risk and management overheads of traditional EPoS systems.

Ian Villalard, Operations Manager at Virgin Media, was responsible for selecting Cybertill. He explains: “Cybertill ticked all our boxes, both as a supplier and a solution. The company is forward-looking and its software is innovative, cost-competitive and scalable. All this makes Cybertill an ideal partner as we grow our store estate.”

Once the contract had been won, development started to customise the solution to Virgin Media’s needs. These included Chip & PIN implementation and integration with the retailer’s Strategix stock management system.

The cybertill software is installed on J2 920 integrated touchscreen computers supplied by J2 Retail Systems via their Box Technologies distributor. This is the company’s de facto choice for clients requiring a Chip & PIN-compliant point-of-sale solution.

Part of cybertill’s appeal is its ability to customise the point-of-service to a client ‘look and feel’. In the case of Virgin Media, the till points display its trademark brand values of ‘cool and contemporary’, designed to appeal to the retailer’s predominantly youthful target customers.

The ease of reporting offered by cybertill was seen by Virgin Media as another big plus. Continues Villalard: “One of our main business drivers was......"

---------- Post added at 19:47 ---------- Previous post was at 19:30 ----------

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...103195,00.html
"
...

Virgin Media has struck the exclusive UK TV deal for The Sarah Connor Chronicles with US studio Warner Bros.

The show will be made available across various digital media, with catch up and preview clips available via Virgin Media's on-demand services.

Virgin Media has also struck a deal, with CBS Paramount, to air several of the Star Trek series, totalling 624 hours of programming that it aims to build a "cult community" around on the Virgin1.co.uk website..."

---------- Post added at 20:15 ---------- Previous post was at 19:47 ----------

no sub, but heres what they say, do you want frys with that?
http://www.nma.co.uk/Logon/ResourceBarrier.aspx?RequiredServices=17,|&Pipelin edPage=/Articles/33658/+McDonald's+sponsors+Virgin+channel.html&Pipelined QueryString=liArticleID%3d33658#ContentContinues

"
McDonald's sponsors Virgin channel

Article Type: News | Author: By Richard Simpson | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 14.06.07
McDonald's has signed a major five-month sponsorship deal on Virgin Media's portal as part of a concerted digital marketing campaign for its deli-style sandwiches.

The deal will see the fast-food giant become the sole sponsor of a new channel called Take 5, which is dedicated to 'bite-sized' entertainment.

The wider campaign will include advertising on sites including Yahoo!, Ebay and MySpace, on which McDonald's is running a home-page takeover for the deli sandwiches. There..."

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Ah RIP then ;) All good and all works anyway :)

Never heard of the place. :angel:

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Virgin investor retreats in a Huff
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/busin...104559,00.html
"James Robinson
Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer

Bill Huff, the powerful hedge fund manager who is a major hareholder in Virgin Media, has sold a large chunk of his stake in the cable company for around $1.6m (£800,000).


Huff reduced his stake in Virgin Media, which is quoted in New York, from 5.7 per cent to 4.9 per cent, according to documents filed with the SEC, the US's stock market regulator, last week.
Huff's influence at the company, formed by the merger of NTL and Telewest and the subsequent acquisition of Virgin Mobile, prompted a bitter shareholder row earlier this year after other investors complained he had too much power.

One of his key allies, William Connors, a former employee at Huff's company WR Huff Asset Management, stepped down from the board after complaints he had disproportionate representation.

Huff also has a seat on the board, as does another former employee, Edwin Bank. Huff was briefly interim chairman of the group and appointed current chairman Jim Mooney, whose decision to remain in his native America has been criticised by some shareholders, who believe he should be based in the UK.

Huff's decision to reduce his stake could prompt investors who are concerned about the group's performance and strategy to demand he further reduces representation on the board...."

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

You have to love this backrrom stuff :)

Now, where are my red braces?

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/item/56673/254/260/3


Good on sky for hitting back, saw the ad in last weeks sunday mail.
About time they rolled their sleeves up with branson.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

:rofl::LOL:

you have to wonder why he's not got rid of all of it, and more so, who took the shares off his hands (i didnt bother to look).

perhaps he's waiting for the price to rise a bit ,he's lost a few quid in this quarters dividends payout on what he offloaded so far, so its interesting.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Maybe keeping some for a " rainy day " ?
Do people like that have them?

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Yeh, quite possibly. :):)

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

I didn't realise you read the Mail, arcam - I always thought of you as an Independent or Guardian reader.

Anyhoo, back on topic - I see in the article you quoted that Sky said "cable customers are "missing out" on hit shows such as Lost and 24"

Funny, I thought those series had finished. :rolleyes:

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Hitting what what back and with what? Just seems like bluster to me, an excuse for more adverts.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Reminds me of the Mac vs PC adverts always on Myspace "Hello I'm Mac and I'm excellent, and I'm PC and I'm always breaking." Stuff like that, it's pathetic really. Acting like a bunch of kids.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=9839
"
MySpace threatening net bandwidth

YouTube & Facebook also hurting businesses

...
The social-networking sites "are generating much more DNS queries per user than other sites," said Keith Oborn, network systems product architect with Virgin Media.

"Because of the way MySpace pages are structured, a single page can generate hundreds of DNS queries."

Oborn said the fact that many of these social-networking sites, including MySpace and YouTube, are served by content-delivery networks adds to the DNS traffic.

"They're making use of an awful lot of short TTLs [time to live values]," Oborn said. "That increases the load on the DNS servers.

The same thing would happen for an enterprise customer as you see happening on a service provider network."

Oborn said it's rare for one website to account for 10 percent of DNS traffic.

"MySpace is the one that everybody knows about," he said. "It's the thing we need to keep a careful eye on in DNS land."

Virgin Media is addressing this phenomenon by upgrading its DNS infrastructure to the latest version of Nominum's software, which uses a technique called Anycast to provide load balancing for improved redundancy.

Virgin Media will complete the upgrade this summer.
With the new configuration, Virgin Media said it "could do 2.5 million DNS queries per second, but all we need is 50,000 or 60,000”, Obort said.

"We have a lot of overcapacity in DNS, which is both cheap and good to have. ... It cost us a few hundred thousand pounds at most."
Virgin Media is anticipating continued growth in its DNS traffic, driven in part by social-networking sites.

"Overall our DNS traffic is growing twice as fast as the number of users," Oborn said. ..."

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

everyones commenting in the other thread, so heres the latest 'in the news' link posted there.
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/10...l#post34341600
From The Times
July 1, 2007
Branson response paves way for $10bn buyout of Virgin Media

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/10...l#post34342415
Branson making his private equity mark

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in London
Published: July 2 2007 20:32 | Last updated: July 2 2007 20:32

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?...lass=0&id=2650
"
ITV 'mulls sale of Freeview slots to Virgin'

ITV is reportedly discussing the sale of some of its Freeview channel slots with Virgin Media. Broadcastnow.co.uk said the talks came as ITV re-evaluated its digital channel strategy.

According to sources contacted by Broadcast, ITV has shelved earlier reported plans to launch a movie channel in the slot once occupied by ITV Play, and then ITV2+1.

Virgin Media is due to launch its free-to-view Virgin 1 channel in the autumn but its Freeview position is restricted to an 8pm to 6am slot. By using the ITV slot the channel could be available 24 hours each day."...

---------- Post added at 18:22 ---------- Previous post was at 18:16 ----------

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/10...l#post34381981
Burch played no part in Virgin auction
Rob Shepherd
23 August

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...rss&feed=media
"
Multi-million pay bonanza for Virgin Media chiefs

• James Robinson, media editor The Observer,
• Sunday January 6 2008

Two directors at cable company Virgin Media have been awarded lucrative share options, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, America's stock market regulator.

Former Five chief executive David Elstein and Edwin Banks have each been granted shares worth millions of dollars. Elstein was handed 187,500 shares, worth around $2.8m (£1.4m), and Banks was awarded 125,000 shares, worth approximately $1.87m.

Banks has provoked controversy as a director because he has close links with Bill Huff, the US investor who used to control NTL. NTL merged with Virgin Mobile to form Virgin Media in 2006.

He worked for Huff's New Jersey-based hedge fund, which still owns a small stake in Virgin Media.

Other large investors in Virgin Media objected to his presence on the board last year, claiming it gave Huff too much influence over company strategy.

That prompted the resignation of another ex-Huff employee, William Connors, who was also on the board.

The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, although it generates its profits in the UK.

The group has a history of paying its board members handsomely: last year, it emerged that its top executives were paid almost $45m (£22.4m) in 2006, while Sir Richard Branson, who ..."

---------- Post added at 04:40 ---------- Previous post was at 04:29 ----------

http://www.cbronline.com/article_new...7-1F7D1EEC783C
"
Ofcom to ensure broadband charges are fair

4th January 2008
By Staff writer
Ofcom, the UK's telecoms regulator has launched an investigation into the hidden costs consumers claim are being charged by mobile phone and broadband companies, reports TimesOnline.

Ofcom claims to have seen an increase in complaints from customers, who state that they had received unexpected bill amounts for itemised bills, non-direct-debit payment and premium-rate technical helplines, for the services they are subscribed to.

...

The telecoms watchdog plans to launch a consultation document about the charges. Ofcom states that this is an attempt to regularise the billing system and make sure that they are clear.

Ed Richards, head of Ofcom, said: "Consumers of communications services see headline prices fall, but they must not be misled... they need confidence that any additional charges are fair, transparent and justified."

Ofcom's report also indicates that several companies charge customers to fix problems. Virgin Media converted its broadband technical helpline to a premium-rate number, charging 25p a minute.

The company claimed it was necessary to stop people from calling the helpline about problems other than broadband.

The report also points out that companies sometimes levy penalties for payment by means other than direct debit.

An administration fee of £3.50 is charged by Orange for each phone on an account not paid by direct debit, Virgin Media charges £5 a month, while BT has fixed the rate at £4.50 per quarter.

BT sources claim that the company had to introduce the charge because "some payment methods are more costly to process than others".

Ofcom also state that a few mobile companies penalise customers who ask to end their 12-or 18-month contract early.

In such cases, the customers are asked to pay the full monthly rental due for the remainder of the contract period.

The customers are also charged for late payment of bills and restoring a service after it has been suspended for late payment.

According to Weller, customers could be misled because the stealth charges often are not levied for the first three months of a contract.

The fees appear in the fourth month, by which time the customer would have stopped scrutinising the bill."

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Let the battle commence.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01...rter_ntl_suit/
"
Number 10 spinner fingered in NTL investor 'bullsh*t' suit


By Chris Williams → More by this author
Published Monday 14th January 2008 12:50 GMT

The man Gordon Brown hopes will pull the government out of its popularity slump was accused of deliberately misleading investors over the financial status of NTL when he was its COO.

Documents filed in a New York class action suit - the cable firm was listed on Wall Street - claimed that after a 2001 conference call Stephen Carter was asked "how can you... persuade investors to believe that NTL is going to be OK when you know it isn't?"

He allegedly replied: "What I tell them is nine-tenths bullshit and one-tenth selected facts."

Carter was poached from a City PR firm and appointed strategy chief by the Prime Minster last week.

The case was settled for $9m without admitting liability by an insurance company acting on behalf of Carter and nine other directors in 2006.

At the time of the call, NTL was saddled with massive debts from investment in the UK cable network. Much of the bill has been inherited by the current owner Virgin Media, which was formed after NTL merged with Telewest in 2006.

Carter left his job as NTL's chief operating officer in 2002. The suit said he and other senior executives illegally lied to spin their way out of the share price nosedive triggered as the full extent of its financial woes emerged.

The conversation is recalled in evidence from his former customer marketing director Charles Darley. It piles further embarrassment on the government, as it tries to move on from a series of scandals that have brought its integrity into question in many eyes.

According to The Times, Carter declined to comment other than to say that US court actions were “often complex and long-running”, while his lawyer said Carter flatly denied the allegations.

We asked Number 10 for comment - we're still waiting.®"

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

:LOL: Obviously a natural born politician who missed his calling somewhat when he entered commerce.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

i missed this related mobile tv news from last year and only realised after reading todays news and the second news link below.
http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/News/V...TV+service/756
"
Virgin Mobile ditches its mobile TV service

27 July 2007

Virgin Mobile is pulling the plug on its mobile TV service less than a year after its launch.

The move has prompted some experts to question consumers' propensity for watching television on a small mobile screen. However, it could be argued that Virgin did itself no favours by launching the service with only one handset - the unusual and unfortunate looking Lobster 700TV phone.
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/01/9.jpg

Viegin Mobile launched its TV service last October with a £2.5 million advertising campaign starring Pamela Anderson. However, the takeip has not matched the marketing spend, with around 10,000 customers signing up to the service.

Although service providers like 3, Orange and Vodafone offer customers mobile TV content via 3G, Virgin Mobile was the first UK operator to offer consumers a digital broadcast TV service. However, technology begind the service only enabled a limited number of TV channels, including BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4, E4 and ITN News.

Since then, the European Commission has since voiced its support for DVB-H technology, as favoured by the likes of Nokia and O2, which enables up to 16 channels.

The bandwidth supporting the mobile TV content was supplied by BT Movio, which - due to its disappointing experience with Virgin - has since cancelled its deal with radio company GCap to provide spectrum for broadcasting TV content to mobile phones."

i did link the odd choice to use DAB-IP for the broadcast mobile TV service ,all in the name to be first.

didnt do the NTL/TW/VM executive much good though did it, given they picked the cheap and nasty option, even though it was clear even then that DVB-H(2) is the future for EU wide multi platform long term growth.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...-relating.html

---------------------------------
http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/News/V...+Player+X/1019
"
Virgin Mobile signs games and video deal with Player X

21 January 2008

Virgin Mobile customers will soon have access to a raft of Player X's games and videos


Under the terms of the deal, Player X says it will source all entertainment and adult comedy mobile video content as well as choosing games content for the Virgin Mobile portal.

It means that Virgin Mobile customers could soon be tuning in to Player X's Knight Rider mobile 'Retrosodes'; three minute animated mobile TV programmes based on Michael Hassellhoff's cult Eighties show.

Other Player X content on offer includes mobile games Family Fortunes and Etch a Sketch, and made for mobile TV shows like Zapper TV and Geek TV."

the VM executive just dont seem to have a clue when it comes to picking the right thing that UK customers might want to pay for and have it grow long term, shame.
-----------------
just like then, im now wondering if its werth posting to the board today, as i dont seem to be getting any good tech related threads or feedback going....

its getting real boring reading and answering the same basic (wireless)questions over and over , perhaps its time to move on elsewere, and let others post the odd interesting news thread now and then when they can be bothered, rather than keep this one going.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

well, if the high courts take the Gemstar side, its potentially one way to force a replacement for the antiquated liberate middleware i suppose, after all its probably cheaper to replace that than pay licensing fees if they can find something else that isnt covered by the patents OC.

rebol/view tcp:ip scripting gui being a good case on point.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01..._virgin_media/
"
Virgin Media trashes patent infringement accusations

TV Guide™ firm cries foul

By Chris Williams → More by this author
Published Thursday 24th January 2008 17:23 GMT

Virgin Media has slammed a High Court patent infringement lawsuit brought by the firm behind the massive US TV Guide franchise as an act of "flagrant opportunism".

TV Guide has gone all techie thanks to the rise of digital cable, and Gemstar-TV Guide International reckons it has now has "one of the world's most extensive patent portfolios directed to interactive programming guides".

It claims the UK cable monopoly owes it licensing payments because of features in its set-top boxes. The firm says it asked Virgin nicely to pay up, but failed to reach a settlement


...

A Virgin Media spokesman replied: "We're confident the courts will see Gemstar's action for what it is: a piece of flagrant opportunism. We have been advised by our external counsel that the case is without merit and we will defend it vigorously."

The patents in question are EP(UK)0969662, EP(UK)1377049, and EP(UK)1613066, relating to techniques for providing an interactive programming guide and handling recordings from it.

Gemstar-TV Guide insists other unnamed European operators have coughed up, so Virgin Media should too. ®"

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Virgin Media director, David Elstein resigns.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...gin-board.html

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

I haven't read this anywhere else as yet.

Possible purchase of Setanta.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....er_speculation

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

US private equity groups are after Virgin Media again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...rss&feed=media
Predators target Virgin Media
"
Mark Watts and Richard Wachman
The Observer, Sunday March 9 2008

Richard Branson could scoop $750m if Virgin Media is sold to US private equity groups, which are actively considering launching a takeover bid, despite continuing turmoil in the credit markets.

According to a private document entitled 'Project Coaxial' - seen by The Observer - Blackstone, Cinven, KKR and Providence Equity are prepared to offer $6bn to $7.5bn for the company, in which Branson's Virgin group holds a 10.5 per cent share.

The proposals suggest the predators are ready to take advantage of Virgin Media's weak share price, which slipped to $14 last week.....
...
Advisers to the private equity consortium's advisers state in the document that 'we believe the Virgin Media board may consider a proposal, depending on premium paid'.

The advisers provide analysis for bid prices ranging from $17 to $22, but the report says nothing explicit about the timetable.
"

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

Internesting.

Wonder what the proposal is?

There isn't any cheap money out there, and the VM board will know that. They could decide to sell at around $20US a share, but given that the last talk of a buyout saw the shares leap to $30US, they may be reluctant to sell for less than that. The company's share price doesn't reflect is current performance, its more to do with the overall markets at the moment I believe.

Nice find popper.

EDIT: Should be interesting to watch VM's share price tomorrow and the next few days. ;)

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

ohh yeah, i forgot about that "the last talk of a buyout saw the shares leap to $30US..."and didnt look back at this thread LOL.

i havent kept track of the shares so dont really know what to expect but your probably right about the $20 price mark, perhaps a little lower, if the talk of more real cash is on the table, plus more sweetners and sundrys etc.

"One analyst said: 'Perhaps these groups are prepared to bankroll a transaction by using a greater cash sum than is usually the case.'"

another (and perhaps related and effecting their choices regarding the above)story.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...nvirgin109.xml
"
Sky row hits Virgin Media bonuses


By Juliette Garside

Last Updated: 12:03am GMT 09/03/2008

Virgin Media's senior executives will miss out on bonuses worth up to 75 per cent of their salary,....
....
Neil Berkett, who was promoted to chief executive last week, missed out on a bonus equal to 100 per cent of his base salary of £450,000.

Malcolm Wall, chief executive of Virgin Media's content division, who signed up on a salary of £350,000 a year in 2006, was among the executives who lost out on a 75 per cent bonus.

He gave up the right to stock options worth £290,000.
....
"

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

i wonder if you still read the CF threads since you moved ISP these days MrA, i assume this will find its way to your email notification box and wondered if you might have some comments for the Phorm thread :angel:

i must try and find some news werthy comments for this old thread.....sometime.

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

He's been around lurking, just not posting.:erm:

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

I was talking to him a few weeks ago, all is well with him and the Angry clan, just very busy. :)

Re: It's In The News: a central thread
 

apparently VM announced an upto? VM 10Mbit Upload trial has been announced!


http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4...-upstream.html