Virgin to be sold?
 

This is from The Telegraph -

Virgin Media, the New York-listed but British-based group, has instructed Goldman Sachs to conduct a review of its content business and a sale is seen by analysts as the most likely option.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

They'll have a better chance of selling it on ebay :D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

;) Can see it being listed on Ebay starting price 1p :D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

and a reserve of £125 just to be safe :)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

The could just want to know how much the company is worth.

I.e when it was NTL is was worth £90 now its virgin its worth £900 Example!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

It's only worth that much because of Branson. if I was Ricky I'd ask for a cut seens as they tricked him just to get a better price.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I think it's trying to offload the TV side of things, as a similar story was going around early last month.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle3465254.ece

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Yeah that is true! I think its just a value like you do on your house every now and again! :)

---------- Post added at 15:52 ---------- Previous post was at 15:48 ----------

I wouldnt think they are selling the TV division, especially with the Samuel L Jackson on their latest adverts and billboards popping up everywhere.

Theres on thing for sure they are sure as hell throwing a **** load of money into adverts.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

catch yourself on pete,up it to 10p.;)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

eBay? Nobody will buy it, Virgin have too many negs!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Ok I'll be nice and up to 50p ;) but no more :p:

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

:rolleyes: Why doesn't that suprise me?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Maybe a Rival Telco might buy it

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Surely the competition board would never let Sky buy VM?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

It's the channels that may be up for sale.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

DOH!!:blush:

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

He'd get a rather large cut anyway, as he's a major shareholder ;0

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

A sale has been on the cards for over a year now, and nothing has happened (yet).

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I think if they did sell, to the right company / person. It may be a turning point, that person / company might have enough money to get VM out of debt & inject some vital cash into the network, which in theory means less Traffic Management

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I would hope so, but no-one is going to pump £6bn into a company, that barely makes a profit each year, it would probably take decades to recoup the money, so doesnt make a decent return.

I think that there will always be traffic management, no matter what the financial state of the company is. VM broadband will always be a condended service, and there will always be people that will always be people that have a negative impact on the network because of their downloading habbits.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

£11bn including debts. ;)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Hilarious isn't it? Sky say it's not even worth £5m when it comes to negotiations yet they would like to buy it when it's valued at something like £800m!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

But assets of £19bn

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I dont think they will sell - if I owned VM and sold it - I would be gutted to a certain extent. To say you own Virgin Media is some achievment! :D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

To say you own Sky is an even bigger achievement! :D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Yeah, true, true! :)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Yeah but to say you own Sky you are also admitting to be a "Murdoch":td:

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Lol Touche! Good point!:D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Perfect buyers:

Comcast: Comcast shared some light on it but was hesitant,they said the UK has too much competition. Comcast has already had shares in Cable franchises in the UK which NTL bought and eventually fell into Telewest's hands and then back to NTL in 2006. Comcast currently owns E! and several other TV channels most of which we don't get yet in the UK.

Verizon: Verizon formerly BellAtlantic or Bellcable Media and Nynex in the UK, Verizon acquired MCI Worldcom globally and already have a telecoms infrastructure here in the UK. Acquiring Virgin Media would allow Verizon to have a Residential base,Small business base and also be able to provide business mobile telephony and Cable internet to its existing Business customers.

Cable and Wireless: Would allow the company to retrieve back a residential and small business customer base and would be able to offer Cable internet to its existing business customers. Cable and Wireless would definately continue to use existing Virgin and NTL:Telewest business brands and thats what Virgin Enterprises want! Although France Telecom are after Cable and Wireless, so if Cable and Wireless did acquire Virgin Media and France Telecom acquires Cable and Wireless, then we would probably see everything be rebranded to Orange! How does Orange Media sound???

Under Virgin Media:
This would be the Residential and TV station base for Cable and Wireless

Under NTL:Telewest Business:
This would be the small business base for Cable and Wireless

Under Cable and Wireless UK:
This would be the parent company of Virgin Media and would be the customer base of the large business customers.

Benefits to the customer if C&W or Verizon acquire the Virgin Media?
Well cheaper phone calls! Since C&W and Verizon are international networks, phone calls made internationally can become cheaper. Also,the national telephone network would be managed by the parent companies saving even more money. Also UK based calls are often routed over networks such C&W and these extra charges would no longer happen as everything would be treated as in-house.

But I would hate it if private equity firms took over as they are there for the profit only and never put customers first!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

[cynic] You really think any business would pass such savings on to it's customers? [/cynic]

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I wouldn't think C&W would be interested as in recent years they have been busy divesting themselves of small & medium businesses in favour of large corporate contracts.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

If VM was to be sold, it would not be a bad idea, even if it did have ' Murdoch' if Sky bought it, look at what it would achieve, You would get all the Sky channels back, all the people that live in places that cannot have a dish would benefit, and it would be cheaper, What would make it even funnier, is if Sky had RB as its main director:D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

C&W wont buy it they sold Bulldog because they couldn't make any money out of it!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

*if* Sky bought the VM cable service (which, afaik, is *not* for sale or even being valued), they would have an effective monopoly on Pay TV. Now, assuming that the Competition commission don't intervene (which they would probably be required to), Sky wouldn't lower prices. Why would they? They'd have no competition.

On the contrary, I think you would find their prices going up massively.

---------- Post added at 20:04 ---------- Previous post was at 19:57 ----------

Orange media sounds absolutely awful. Everyone I know who has had Orange Broadband or an Orange Mobile has had problems..

As for C&W showing an interest? Based upon the past, I wouldn't expect any interest they show lasting long.. They already bought a lot of cable companies in 1999, which they had disposed off by 2003-2004. Then, they bought Bulldog, kept the network and sold off everything apart from the network. Bulldog is still trading, but it is as a unit of Pipex, which is part of Tiscali.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Stuart they would have a monopoly but the funny thing is he is right, the consumer would gain. Competition isnt the be all and end all like ofcom thinks it is. Competition certianly is a driver for pushing prices down and hindering investment, all those complaining about STM you can thank competition for that.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

This valuation / sale is all about
http://www.virginmediatv.co.uk/
not
http://www.virginmedia.com/
http://www.virginmedia.com/about/
http://investors.virginmedia.com/pho...485&p=irol-faq
Virgin Media Inc. is a Delaware corporation and is publicly-traded in the US on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "VMED".

Virgin Media owns two content businesses - Virgin Media Television (VMTV) and sit-up. VMTV owns seven entertainment channels - LIVINGtv, LIVINGtv 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Challenge, Trouble and Ftn - and is a 50% partner in UKTV which consists of ten channels including UKTV Gold and UKTV History. sit-up runs retail TV channels bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auctiontv.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Prices tend to go up when competition dies. Innovation (in terms of new products and services) goes down, because to a large extent, that innovation is created by the need to win customers.

Want proof? How much did BT innovate (in terms of new services) and how much did they lower prices between the time they were privatised and the time competition established itself?

You really think Sky would have lowered prices if they *hadn't* had competition from both Cable and OnDigital?

While conditions for Consumers would probably not get any worse, they would not get better either.

I am not saying that competition is the be all and end all. It isn't. It has resulted in artificially low broadband prices (it actually costs more for the ISPs to provide their faster tarrifs than they charge). This has caused ISPs to cut investment in their networks to the minimum, introduce measures like STM, and look at alternate revenue streams, such as music/video downloads and Phorm.

What I am saying is that without competition, you do not generally get innovation. Say Sky did become the only pay TV provider in the country. Everyone who wanted Pay TV would have to go to them anyway, so why would they spend money developing new facilities on their boxes (such as the Press Green to record on ads, and remote recording from mobiles)?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Sorry mate but it doesn't work that way, those networks still have to be maintained, monitored and fixed, and to be honest the savings that are made by a rationalisation of the workforce (a posh way of saying that your making some poor bugger redundant) are negligible when you start to try to parcel it out against the millions of phone calls made every day.

Those sort of savings never get fed back directly to customers, they go into reducing operational expenditure which means that companies don't have to borrow as much money to run the services, that means less interest payments which in turn means higher dividends for the share holders.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Must be in fashion this week
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080430...r_080430192248
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/bu...arner-web.html

Separating content from distribution

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Yes I said prices going down is about the only benefit of competition, but I think lower prices are not always a good thing.

BT is a good example. Prior to been broken up by ofcom one could get a engineer callout for broadband fault with relative ease, prior to the wholesale pricing changes enforced by ofcom traffic shaping wasn't in existance or at least not on such a large scale, BT have effectively gone on record saying one of the prime reasons for a lack of FTTH rollout is the fact they would be forced to unbundle it to competitors (I dont often defend BT but they are in the right here).

Now moving on to tv. Sky have a good track record of investment, they spend billions on premiership football coverage and its the best in the country. Then regulation forces the premiership football rights to be fragmented and whats the result? Higher prices for the consumer as they forced to pay for setanta to get their prem plus games back and setantas coverage is poor in comparison. If the paytv market was broken up by breaking up sky the only winners are sky's competitors but not the consumers. Look at ofcoms regulation history they there to benefit who they regulate and make a competitve market often at damage to the consumer. This is because they often over regulate.

Ofcom are almost certianly stifling investment, a over competitive market is not a good place to invest. A market with low retail pricing is not a good place to invest as there is no ROI.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Cable and Wireless acquired Nynex,Videotron and Bellcable media in 1997 and also merged Mercury which it already owned into Cable and Wireless Communications, thats why Mercury One2one recieved new branding.

In 1999 Cable and Wireless experienced a few financial problems and sold of its 50% share of one2one to Deutsche Telekom, US West also sold theres to Deutsche Telekom too meaning one2one was a wholly owned Deutsche Telekom firm.

Cable and Wireless then planned to acquire Telewest Communications and if not sell all of its cable franchises. NTL was the lucky one and they acquired all of Cable and Wireless's and BT's cable franchises. ITV also had to dispose of Diamond Cable due to a competition issue and NTL also recieved that.

Bulldog Comms was sold off because there was a lot of problems with upgrading its network, they expanded to fast and most customers had no service even though they paid upfront,there was also a problem with the billing system too. Bulldog was ordered to pay its customers back and this is a long process. Therefore Cable and Wireless again experienced financial issues and sold its customer base although according to the register, Cable and Wireless are selling directly to a few ex-bulldog customers. Cable and Wireless also planned on disposing some of its low revenue generating business customers too but disposed of many workers.

Recently, Cable and Wireless, rebranded there channel island operations and have now launched in the Isle of man selling to all sectors. Its called ''Sure'' .

So whos what they will do!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

If the VM TV channels were bought by Sky then they should make a condition of the sale the return of the SKY basic channels plus whatever else they can eke out of them :)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

The biggest issue, concerning any prospective sale of VM channels, to Sky for £600. million is NOT the pay TV market, it is for the consumer, you and me, for a long time now, we have had the issue of where, VM took off the bonus package of Sky, which affected everyone, especially myself, l much prefer Sky News, to BBC24, which is totally crap, the issue of SSNews, which we also lost, this will benefit the customer, please remember, we have customers in flats that cannot have dishes, we also have places that cannot have dishes, due to landlords, that don't want ugly dishes on the walls, we have a block of flat in West London, that is riddled with dishes, which makes the block unsightley, NO it is not the residents fault, they want television, from whatever source they get it, It has been widely known, that VM want to expand the broadband service they provide, so therefore, this would be the perfect way of getting round it, and don't forget, all the technology that Sky has, you won't get those, pictures that break up - l think it is a brilliant idea.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I find it amusing when people say sat dishes make it unsightly, most buildings are ugly in themselves a dish isnt going to make much difference.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Me too.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

They do. Even if a building is ugly (and not all are), adding a satellite dish makes they worse. Painting them black (as Sky do) just makes it worse.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I can't imagine VM would ever sell to Sky. Especially over all the fiasco with ITV and Sky basics. Then again some things are done just to amaze us.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Sky pictures break up all the time in poor weather. If they have technology to contol the weather I think they should be sharing it with us:D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I guess we all see it differently, sat dishes are so popular now I dont even take notice of them, mine is on the chimney so the only way I will even see it is if I look right up at it. Black is a good choice of colour white dishes would just look dirty.

---------- Post added at 01:31 ---------- Previous post was at 01:30 ----------

Mine does not, my old box had issues but the new box is fine in all weather since I have had it.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Legal responsibility to do whats best for the shareholders, itv issue has no bearing if sky make best offer (not necessarily £ though i admit) more likely breaking channels up would raise more £

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Hi to All,

I am now waiting for a couple of shoot through virgin mobile for communication..........

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

In the long term would selling off their own TV channels have anything to do with VM intending to negotiate a new deal with with big suppliers of UK multimedia internet content such as the BBC?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Yeah i really want Sky to buy VM then i can pay for my box, pay for a warranty or have to pay for call outs! Then there is calling customer support too again at a price!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

ahh so you admit it, you like VM because you got more money in your pocket. For your information tho I dont pay for a warranty or callouts I had my sky+ box replaced free outside of warranty period. I think its only right original boxes are not free however thats bad economical sense.
VM may be cheaper especially for those who keep blagging retention deals but its also the reason they in such a mess.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

hi,
to sell of the cable tv side may be a good idea from what i can see rb is not interested in the tv side no more to sell to another cable tv com may gives us more chns plus more hd as well,
tex

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

It has been well published that VM, are going to increase it BB service, therefore if Sky came in with an offer, then l think that VM would listen, and l think they would right, at the present time, VM are in trouble, as they are losing customers each month, and with the fact that there are, other companies coming in, and now we have another major on the verge of being taken over, VM and Sky have gone in with bids, to me it would not matter, as all l want is a quality tv service for what l pay for,.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Arthur, once again, facts are not your friend. ;)

VM Q1 results

Page 4 - RGU net additions - 88k on-net broadband, 59k contract mobile, 37k TV & 29k on-net telephony

Page 5 - shows VM adding customers for last 3 Quarters

Page 6 - 1.2% Churn - lowest rate in 3 years

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Personally, I dont think VM should sell anything to anyone. They have a good-ish platform, it just needs the CEO to pull his finger out of his backside & start making the right choices..

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Hi webcrawler2050, l have to totally agree with you, l would not have put it that way though, My personnel feelings are, that VM should sell it TV network to another major company, and concentrate on the BB side, and that is what they are good at, l have no problem, with that side of the Media side, my main problem is with the TV side, it is NOT giving the customers what they want, lets put it this way, why put a RED button on the remote, when you cannot use it, or the text button for that matter, l prefer SSNews, than Setanta Sports news, or Sky news, to BBC24, what do you think.:)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

You need to remember that the red button apps on Sky don't work on VM because Sky will not licence them to VM, not because they cannot work on VM or because VM does not want to make them work but because again sky is not playing nicely in the sandbox and wants to keep that toy to itself.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Customer support for sky is free for me :)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

One thing we need to get clear, Virgin have talked about selling their Content business. This is the old Flextech channels (Living, UK Gold etc). It is *not* the part of the company who runs the cable network (or any customer facing business).

---------- Post added at 11:06 ---------- Previous post was at 11:04 ----------

Sadly, the only way that is likely to stop is if the Government introduces rules banning companies from owning both channels and the platforms they are delivered on, or they introduces rules requiring that companies provide the same service on platforms owned by other companies.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Lucky you. They have an 0870 number which isn't free.

---------- Post added at 13:51 ---------- Previous post was at 13:50 ----------

Yeah Stu i know mate. I'm not the one who has my wires crossed. I was simply replying to the member who stated they would like to see Sky buy VM as in the whole company.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Customer support is free to people who have there phoneline just like VM

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

doesnt matter if tv isnt profiteable tho. TV makes VM no money its pretty well known and all those blaggers on retention deals will actually be loss making.

---------- Post added at 10:29 ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 ----------

End of the day the reasons dont matter, they dont work.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Forcing you to get their phone line too which means paying £150 for BT install. Nice one Sky:rolleyes:

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

No its not :) its £30 for a new BT instalation now. Stop trying to troll. Your the same on DS and your the same on here now. Your anti VM is boring now. Besides most Sky customers have a BT Line so there is no cost. Plus Sky plus is a monthly contract.

Anyway this is not about Sky phone. So lets keep it on topic.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Stop trying to troll lol. Since when was this new installtion fee bought in then?
I feel sorry for all those new Sky line rental customers months on end who have been paying the £150 installation fee and now everyone else get's it for the £30 i bet they feel robbed:rolleyes:By the way it's not anti VM :rolleyes:

edit: So where's this £30 connection fee then? I have googled it and found nothing but complaints about people feeling they have been robbed having to fork out £150 for a install. On another note i read somewhere that you only get it for £30 if you sign up for £18 months and if you only want to sign for 12 the full install fee still stands, how's that trolling exactly? Looks like you're the one trolling.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

But at the end of the day if you ask someone for something and they will not give it to you the only alternative is legislation to separate transmission from content and code or legislation to force sharing. Sky have shown they don't like to play nice on the TV front on a number of occasions, the latest being the lowball they managed to negotiate on the VM channels and the premium they tried to charge on the Sky channels.

Do you really think those that manage Sky 1 / News / Sports News etc don't want to be broadcasting on the VM network or do you think it is a decision from above them to premium price these channels off that network. The decision will be hurting the Profits of the chanels and the bonuses of those that manage the channels.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

VM may not be profitable but that is only due to their debt. It does not mean they are not successful. Vm are very successful hence all the interest from PE firms. VM has managed to constantly increase their subscriber numbers quarter upon quarter whilst all the time reducing churn. This makes them a success but they debt over shadows them dramatically. If VM was not indebt it would be very profitable indeed ;)

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Thats silly you know if you dont have a VM line its not free to phone VM so its the same with both companies. In fact you dont even need to pay sky line rental if you on sky talk CPS then thats enough for free calls to their call centres.

---------- Post added at 06:02 ---------- Previous post was at 06:00 ----------

VM I believe sell certian premium channels at a loss to remain competitive, non premium channels are mostly break even or a very small profit. I have heard from more than one source TV makes them no money and its just so they could offer triple play.

Sky however is the opposite they sell broadband at a loss but it means they also offer triple play. So both companies are making losses on certian products to keep customer retention high.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Are you having a laugh? It is free to phone VM! it's 150 on your virgin landline and an 0800 number from a phone box:rolleyes:

Sorry you need to relook at your source then. Because tv does make them money. They have a very attractive VIP package that makes them lots of revenue and their tv package sees good uptake. They make money from VOD and filmflex too. V+ is seeing big uptake and it costs customers £75 to have the box. How exactly are they not making money? Broadcasters pay vm to broadcast on thier platform too. Infact i would say they make more profit from tv than BB.

Sky make a loss on bb because it is simply a subsidary and you get it free with their tv service of you choose the lower tier. VM's tv is not a subsidary and you do have to pay for it every month.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

When they insisted they had to charge me for a phone line in order to provide me with a DTV service, the excuse they used as a reason was that they make no money from the TV.

So just who is telling the porkies here then?
And if VM is making so much money how come they can't or won't keep their network and TV service up to scratch?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Chrys, the reply wasn't in relation to profitability, it was in relation to arthur's assertion that VM were continually losing customers month on month. ;)

btw, I disagree - reasons do matter; if you can't do something because someone else won't allow you to, it's a bit harsh to blame you for the problem (imho).

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Lol. They can't keep their network up to scratch yet they constantly invest in new technologies like vod and iplayer. Along with signing deals with Setanta for premium sport included in their xl pack offering. What do you mean it is not up to scratch exactly? Because near enough everyone i know who has the service is happy with it.

Vm charge for tv so therefore make revenue from tv. Where is your proof they make no money from it?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Why should I have to prove something told to me by an Ntl sales person?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

You believe a sales person?!:D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I didnt say I blame VM I just said its irrelevant, it doesnt matter whos fault it is what does matter is if it works or not. Its just tough luck to VM life isnt fair. Of course VM can in a market that was force opened, buy their own football rights and then refuse to give sky interactive on it so then the tables would be even. But VM have chosen not to do this. Noone is putting a gun to VM's head and saying you must buy your football of sky instead of getting it yourself direct.

VM/ntl can only offer me a analogue tv service, its possible the reason they not upgraded my area is that they cannot get permission to dig up the roads. But sorry I am not a charity case I simply go to a competitor that offers what I want.

---------- Post added at 11:19 ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 ----------

Very arrogant, say that to people in southampton and leicester who pay full whack for a aging analogue service whilst VM ignores their areas and keeps reinvesting in the same areas again and again. If VM are making money on it how can you explain their decision to concentrate on broadband and not tv?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Crumbs you lot, will somebody actually read the OP instead of indulging in wild speculation?

Its content business. I've emboldened it just so it stands out. The content business is the TV channels it owns though Flextech. They have been trying, on and off, to get shut of them for some time, so this is nothing new.

Any and all discussion of the sale of Virgin Media itself is just naked speculation. I mean, speculate away by all means, but not on the back of this report in the Telegraph because that is not what is being reported.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Chris, I think you will find you are urinating is a strong scottish breeze with this lot...

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Yeah and we all know their staff aren't privvy to such information. You can not take anything they say as gospel. Plus you say it was NTL staff. It's not NTL anymore, things have changed drastically since then.

---------- Post added at 17:26 ---------- Previous post was at 17:10 ----------

How on earth is my post arrogant? If anyone's post is arrogants it's yours.
Do you have some inside knowledge that VM do not make any money on their tv service? Where is your proof? VM do not make much money on their analogue side of stuff granted but you didn't say that! You said VM make no money from their tv! VM infact does make money from their tv service and subscriptions are up every quarter.
Just because they are concentrating on BB does not mean they don't make money on tv FFS! BB is their strong point, tv is Sky's strong point but that doesn't mean VM does not make money in their tv side of the business! Plus they didn't just state they are concentrating on BB they said they are concentrating on VOD aswell. Their tv service is going from strength to strength VOD is actively used by the millions more and more every quarter. You are talking absoloute rubbish and basing all your opinions on their analogue service which isn't a good comparison to VM's actual tv service at all. If VM made no money in their tv side why are they developing a new box which will allow VM extra reach to an extra 4m customers. Plus, VM's tv service has better up take than Sky in the areas they cable!:rolleyes:

---------- Post added at 17:28 ---------- Previous post was at 17:26 ----------

I agree! They are making wild accusations in order to stick the knife in VM yet again. Talking a load of BS asual.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

you dont think laughing at not keeping a network up to scratch isnt arrogant then? You defending VM very hard and trying to make them seem something that they are not.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

How are they not keeping their network up to scratch?! Where's your proof? It just seems yet again your opinion! I am not defending VM about anything, i am challenging your comments because they seem unjust and everytime i ask you for hard proof you can't give any!
Vm have several field teams to fix their infrastructure. Networks being one of them.

In this thread you say they are not keeping their network up to scratch yet in another one you suggest that they are indeed cabling leeds! Which one is it exactly?:rolleyes:

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

When a network practically runs out of bandwidth to the extent that they have no room for a SD footie channel or any more HD channels then I would say that network was not up to scratch.
And that is not even mentioning the many areas that were left for up to 12 months with inferior BB after the 20meg downgrade and the areas apparently still not fixed.:rolleyes:

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

So you have moved onto say that VM's network has always not been up to scratch then? Not that they are not keeping it up to scratch :rolleyes: If anything i think you mean that it's capcity restricted.
Vm have never come out and said they are bandwith strapped. Even if they are they will be moving to docsis 3.0 soon to allow more bandwith, yet again means they are sorting out their network. They have no room for a SD footie channel? They added it didn't they? It took awhile, Arsenal may have commented it was due capacity but VM never. It could have be contractual issues there is no proof they could not add it. They added it without the removal of another channel which to me says there was no capacity issue.

They will have room for more HD channels once they remove analogue tv. But what is the point in letting channels that call themselves HD when it is mostly infact upscaled content onto the network to take up capacity, when they could have much more SD channels as SD channels take up less capacity and you could have more of them? Channel 4 currently shows one hr a day of HD shows! Why would VM want that? They are better of for the time being leaving HD to VOD until this new IPTV services comes about and they can broadcast VOOM. All you are doing is basing what you think are facts on speculation.

Oh you mean the FREE 20meg upgrade? What exactly do you want for FREE?:rolleyes: They rolled it out gradually to iron out any creases they may have had. 20meg is widely sorted now hence the move on to 50meg bb. VM is considered the most reliable and most loved ISP, it's also the biggest. No wonder their subscription numbers keep on growing hey? If people are unhappy as you are surely they would leave? So which areas do not have fixed 20meg upgrades then? Cable broadband has a far more happy customer base with their bb than Sky, Tiscali and co who have exchange issues.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Have you got proof for this?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

you getting so bad its almost funny.

you asking for proof that southampton and leics networks are out of date right?

cabling leeds is going to a new network it does not equate keeping a network up to scratch. I am trying so hard to not be rude to you.

---------- Post added at 15:36 ---------- Previous post was at 15:35 ----------

Given his posts I expect hes an employee.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

No! FFS:rolleyes:Analogue is being switched off! That is not the issue, digi enabled areas are the issue! It is obvious the analogue areas network is not up to scratch it's in the dark ages and will stay there. I am talking about digital enables areas. Once again you are basing all your opinion on the analogue service that will ceast to exsist soon!

You said they are not keeping their network up to scratch yet they are seen to be upgrading one of their areas! I'm sorry i don't understand your logic. Be rude all you like my friend i couldn't care less if it makes you feel better and clever then please do carry on I've already had be* be rude to me, he's on ignore so do as you please....
---------- Post added at 15:36 ---------- Previous post was at 15:35 ----------



Yeah i must be an employee because i don't agree with what you are saying. That must make you a Sky employee FFS. Some people are so immature it's unreal:rolleyes:

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I see the proof I asked for is still not here. And he completely ignored the question

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Well the difference between you and me tvtimes is I find good and bad things about every company, I have criticised sky, BT and VM all 3 companies. Meanwhile you have not said a single negative thing about VM and ignored various points people have made. This I find suspicous.

Analogue is not turned off yet and remains part of the VM network. If they replace it with LLU, the LLU could be considered as not up to scratch compared to the digital cable network.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Indeed. Over the past month Sky has been a night mare for me. I think TVTimes is ignoring me becuase I called him Humey. (Humey was a member who did not have a clue) Considering I only called him Humey he has took it awfully personal.

Meh ah well :D

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

You can find it as suspicious as much you want:rolleyes: We can't even have a simple debate with out me being an employee of VM. I criticise VM plenty in the digitalspy forums and i show people considering leaving VM great deals with Sky. I am an advocate of nothing.
The LLU is not a virgin media network they do not own it so why should they keep it up to scratch?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Of course, I get similiar on thinkbroadband, there is a couple of guys there who spend all day defending BT and their policies and do nothing else (again whats their motivation as they are not posting in a neutral stance?).

I cannot pass judgement on LLU with VM yet as it depends on how they market such products, if they market the products as an equal to their cable services I will have a problem with it.

In regards to analogue their is some analogue areas that do have cable broadband, if VM were to replace the analogue broadband service with a copper LLU service they would effectively be downgrading it so it will be interesting to see if they keep the broadband service up in these areas.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I don't feel the need to defend VM they are a company who i pay to provide me with a service. A service so far i have been relatively happy with. If i feel your points aren't valid then i will disagree and give the reasons why. There is nothing like a good old fashioned debate, i don't have a problem with you and i am sorry if you think i am being off with you because it really is not my intention Chrysalis. I just think some of your points are ill informed or from you personal opinion and are not the opinion of the majority of people and therefore do not relate to everyone else.

Analogue is an old system in the dark ages, the problems you experience are not relative to the vast majority and the network will be left to rot until VM can cable it with it being financilly viable. Currently there is too much debt. I don't see why they wouldn't keep BB up in those areas but the majority of analogue areas do not have bb if they do, they are very lucky. Why couldn't Vm offer a iptv service through their BB to analogue areas where it's available rather than use LLU and therefore copper networks?

I don't particularly think the LLU service will be anything to write home about and it will have it's bugs just like other IPTV companies. Customers bb experience will yet again depend on distances from the exchange. Some customers living next to the exchange will be very happy like BE* customers are but then the majority living further away will have problems. The only thing that i think will set Vm out from the others is if they can keep their prices competitive and keep VOD free for their top paying customers. This is where BT vision could be a really great service but it lacks.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

A typical fanboy phrase. People as far as 1 mile away have been known to hit 20mb. I certainly dont live near the exchange and get top speed on Sky.

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

"I certainly dont live near the exchange and get top speed on Sky."

also a typical fanboy phrase!!

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

Why because I speak the truth and dont live next door?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

But the ISP is not being sold. How off topic can this thread remain?

Re: Virgin to be sold?
 

I think it should be sold since they've bn totally rubbish Bring NTL back