[Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Sky do a deal with VM and have to give Sports 1 & 2 HD and Movies HD, plus Sky basics HD.
So Sky put several over on VM.
1)They announce Movie Classics will go HD BUT it's not part of VM deal.
2)Immediately Advertise that only Sky have All sports HD channels.
3)Introduce sportsnews in HD again not part of the VM deal.
4)Launch Living HD on Sky BEFORE VM launch the Sky basics HD channels or even mention a launch date.

Well done Sky your marketing is top notch!

re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

And snap up nearly every HD channel when they launch.

re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

I can't blame them when it comes to Living HD considering they now own the channel.

re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

They seem to out flank VM all the time. Its time VM really got to grips with there TV output or they risk being left behind forever.

re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Oiiii don't praise sky on here the witch hunt will commence....

Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

Its like when you give a kid at school a swap - they always say right give me it and il give you that. But they take it off you and say na - na iv got both.

WELL its the same with Virgin Media & Sky.

Sky said as long as you give us Virgin Media Television, we'll give you Sky Basics in HD. One condition though - Give us the Virgin Media Television channels first - THEN we'll give you the Sky HD channels. So Virgin Media do and OHH GUESS WHAT...

...Sky are like Na nah na na nahh we have both Virgin Media Television chAnnels and sky basics. What are you gunna do now Virgin

And Virgin are like wahhhhhhhhh wahhhhh :bigcry: give us our channels back but sky are like nah lets not.

PREDICTION 4 THE FUTURE:

Virgin says right Im tellin OFCOM and Sky are like what are OFCOM gunna do about it. And then Sky are like go and cry to Richard Branson.

Finally Virgin are like well at least Branson is better than Murdock...

WHAT A STORY :D:D:D

Bad thing about it though is that it is probably true. Sky are bullying Virgin Media. And there isnt nothing Virgin can do about it.

re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Thats why Sky are top of the pay-TV many market. They have many faults, and I love the service from VM, but Sky are undoubtedly the top dogs.

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

Yawn, if vm had any sense, this would not of happened. And VM have plenty if sense

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

Bartering with streams of millions of pounds of revenue is somewhat more advanced than swapping Pokémon cards with children.

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

I hate double negatives, even more so when the story reads like its been written by Vicky pollard

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

I thought it was quite funny

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

Amusing, if not funny.....;)

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

we know it should be but VM do such a bad job it that it does look like they are always on the end of a good school yard screw over !!!!

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

In your humble opinion.....

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

The side that are selling, and selling because they want to not because they've received an offer out of the blue, are evidently going to get less out of the deal because they're the ones who are relying on the buyer. If VM had went out and said we want this, that and the other Sky could have easily walked out of the deal and we would currently have no Sky HD whatsoever. You should be thankful that Virgin actually pushed Sky for channels in the first place because I highly doubt Sky were offering them in their offer.

re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

The truth is we have SKY to thank for all the HD channels we have available on Virgin today. SKY have been driving hard for 2 - 3 years to launch as many HD channels on their platform as possible. Virgin, until recently, didn't really do much in the way of delivering HD channels however they couldn't allow SKY to continue unchallenged.

Put it this way, if it was the other way around and SKY decided 2 - 3 years not to invest in HD and allowed Virgin to build their HD folio first before challenging, both SKY and Virgin customers would still only have BBCHD!

SKY, making Virgin better;)

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

it was announced that VM no longer needed to sell their TV assests in march, so all this crap about the people selling get less is rubbish.

selling anything only works if both sides think they are gaining something they would never otherwise get but the point is SKY got their channels and their customers are now enjoying them including living HD that was previously exclusive to VM but VM customers are still waiting for the rest of what was agreed.

surely if SKY can get their side sorted and up and running VM should be able to match without these so called "little details left to sort". all the details should of been sorted once the deal was signed 6 weeks ago.

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

Amen to that :clap::clap::clap::clap: :p::p::p::p:

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

'of'

Does my head in.

re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

well put chad

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Two very similar threads covering similar ground, both started today, merged.

--------

It does seem that Virgin Media were a little naive in this deal. Quite a few concerns were voiced on this forum at the time the original Virgin Channels sale deatails wer made public :(

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

1. Virgin would not have announced that they do not need to sell the channels and any one else saying so is not an announcement. Nor as per your wording did Virgin ever "need" to sell the channels.

2. They got 13 HD channels and £160 million, I'd say that fell under the category of 'something'.

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

1. the exact wording was
"there was no compelling need to sell assets such as its pay-TV channels".

here is the link (feb 15th news) http://www.advanced-television.com/2...5_feb19.htm#t1


2. VM didnt get 13 HD channels !!! VM got access to 12 Sky premium channels and 3 SKY HD basics on a 9 year access deal and lets remember this DOES NOT INCLUDE any future SKY owned HD/SD channels. of which only the 12 premium channels have been broadcast to retail.

to be honest a 9 year carrage deal and £160million for all VM`s TV assests is not at all a lot as in the end VM have sold their biggest dealing chip for future deals with SKY.
owning physical asssts has got to be better than a 9 year contract and some petty cash !!!

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

Thats how i saw it :D

---------- Post added at 07:42 ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 ----------

Yawn indeed :erm:

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

What a shock. Berkett says "I really don't want to part with these channels" when in actual fact he did. :)

People involved in selling something, whether it's a second hand car or some tv channels aren't in the habit of saying that they can't wait to get rid of them.

Re: Admit it Virgin, You screwed up...
 

I think it's called "negotiating"........;)

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Anyone else think this thread is pointless? :erm:

The deal has been done and the channels are coming.. VM don't have to do everything at the same time as Sky launch Living HD.

As it's been said earlier, VM got the best deal they could... they don't want to be channel owner, they want to be a platform.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Agreed but I think people feel everything at Virgin takes an age when compared to sky.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Some people have very short memories. We've already got 12 of the Sky HD channels.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

I'm pretty patient and tbh, I personally don't watch Sky 1 so the delay is no problem.

The only thing that gets me about all this is Virgin have had the ability to blow Sky and all competitors out of the water technology wise for many years now but through previously mis-directed management (?) and being bogged down by debt have lagged behind substantially.

Now it seems they are never going to catch up and firmly remain also rans compared to Sky which is a shame.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

No sky basics though , only premium which the minority subscribe to.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Pretty much agree DF. A launch date from VM would do away with all this though!

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Agreed, find it amazing that some things that have been available in America don't appear to have been considered over here.

Features like

Start over - would love to be able to start a TV show again at the touch of a button.

Remote recording - been available for years on Sky but no mention of it via cable despite cable boxes having a full two way link to Virgin HQ.

Create your own playlists of VoD shows.

I know Tivo is coming and it going to (apparently) change our lives but I have had cable for over 10 years now and these features have been available around the world for years.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

The best place to get Sky HD is from Sky. This should be obvious to even a person who has no knowledge of satellite/cable but browses the two websites.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

and don't forget the ability to watch previously recorded shows on any of the boxes in the house. I think that was one of the SA facilities at one time...at least in the US.

When VOD was introduced, I always thought it was a good idea if NTL (as was then) could cook up some sort of remote record facility for people (this was before V+ boxes) Choose to record something and it's recorded automatically and stored for you at the headends.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

I don't know why VM do not just announce in advance when these channels are going to launch? it would stop all this speculation and give the appearance that VM are on the ball.
I'm more concerned about the upcoming HD versions of Eden and UK Food, VM have a financial stake in both of these channels so therefore you'd expect them to be at the front of the queue when they launch...as usual though Sky have already got UK Food-HD before VM and I'd lay odds they'll get Eden-HD before us also.
Surely having a stake in these channels should give VM some advantages??

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Conveniently left out of the OP is the fact Virgin got £160m for VMTV and a new long term carriage agreement in place ensuring stability of channels on their platform.

To go through the 4 points:

1. Sky Movies Classics HD is just one HD channel. Considering Virgin didn't have any HD channels other than BBC HD until earlier this year the offering now, at the current price points, is better now than it was then.
2. Sky's advertising is always in some way going to play on it's superior offering. An offering that does come at a significant price premium over VIP 50.
3. As point 1.
4. Living HD is on cable anyway, I don't see why any subscriber should get upset about it.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

Re Sky advertising playing on it's superior offering. This is a fact of life. Sky are always going to do that. I dare say that VM, if the situation were reversed would do exactly the same.

The only thing that is going to stop *any* company doing that is if someone (OFCOM or the Government, probably) introduces rules banning any close links between TV channels and platforms.

Re: [Merged] You have to give Sky their Due!!! - VM Screwed Up?
 

I agree, my point was really that I don't see it being part of some tactical masterstroke for Sky to do something that's quite ordinary and could be fully anticipated.

If anything, Virgin have pulled the masterstroke by offering Sky Premium HD effectively free to top tier customers. Sky on the other hand can't, as Virgin's fee will no doubt be linked to Sky's retail pricing. Sky equally have little/no movement on phone line rental or broadband pricing.