Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

They won't be coming down, that's for sure!

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Another notch on John Malone's belt.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

VIP has increased by £5 a month to £125 a month after 12 months for new customers

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Any plans for a rewards system similar to what Sky have introduced?

With the vast majority getting a price hike of at least £3.99 every year and nothing in return its no wonder so many left last year and no doubt another mass exodus will be on the way this Autumn

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Broadband providers attempting to block mandatory compensation scheme.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...-compensation/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Good. Poorly thought through, moronic policy in current form.

---------- Post added at 09:17 ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 ----------

Nope. Even Sky aren't that confident in it - check out the discounts they offer 'returning' customers. They show their standard prices for what they are - obscene.

Price increases are about right for increased costs of delivering services. Even without any speed increases the average household is up to 200+GB of data a month, increasing 40+% per year. Cost of delivering that data isn't dropping quickly enough to compensate. That ignores the ongoing obscene costs of TV rights. When fewer and fewer people take telco then it'll really hit the fan.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I genuinely would rather pay a bit more for broadband than having to take a telephone line to subsidise it.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media launches kids TV app

Virgin customers can download the Virgin Kids app from the Apple and Google download stores, with shows available to view offline when abroad.

http://advanced-television.com/2017/...s-kids-tv-app/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Broadband TV News reports that Liberty Global is exploring the sale of its cable subsidiaries in Switzerland and Austria.

The discussions are understood to be at an early stage and may not lead to a transaction.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Interesting. Why is a global cable company looking to sell off presence in those countries?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

The suggestion I've seen is that it will leave Liberty Global with a similar footprint to that of Vodafone...

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

These two will likely combine at some point and as I said earlier in the thread, merge together with Malone's US companies.

Eventually an even bigger fish (Apple??) will come along and swallow the lot whole once Malone has done all the work of bringing various content and network companies together.

---------- Post added at 23:36 ---------- Previous post was at 23:31 ----------

This was from the first page of this thread and I've changed my mind on this now. If Malone was going to buy ITV, he would've done it by now. He's got much bigger fish to catch now, then again, he did get that ITV stake for a reason...perhaps I shouldn't rule out ITV getting bought, but as I said before, I reckon it would be somebody like Disney.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media gives away £100 vouchers in flash sale on Full House TV bundles.


https://www.cable.co.uk/news/virgin-...ale-700002082/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

So, Liberty Global is set to float its interests outside Europe (aka LILAC), sell its Austrian business to Deutsche Telekom and thereby put itself in pole position to combine with Vodafone. Interesting times in 2018!
https://www.ft.com/content/08f7f89a-...9-0191e45377ec

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Yes, I was meaning to publish Dear John's latest goings on myself. That FT article is a premium one, but the story is mentioned in this Telegraph article: (and other articles too)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...est-manoeuvre/

Malone was interviewed by CNBC last month and he basically said his cable assets are up for sale if a suitable buyer comes along and he was approached by four companies but refused to name one of them. I think we know who that is!

Here's a snippet of that interview:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/john...r-charter.html

Here's a long interview he did last year which I found very interesting:

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2016/11/1...interview.html

In other news, Malone has also bought a higher share in Discovery today, a company he controls, albeit indirectly already:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/17/libe...ery-stock.html

He's starting to look quite frail now which is not surprising as he is in his 80s and he clearly wants to finish his consolidation of his empire, then sell the lot to the highest bidder.

He's also buying full control of HSN, Home Shopping Network, perhaps he'll merge it with QVC.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Latest business news:


Vodafone eyes European expansion with Liberty Global deal


http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42921619

Purchase of assets, merger or takeover - any offers?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

A different article I saw yesterday mentioned the UK, but the BBC article doesn't.

If the assets swaps are in countries where they both have assets, the UK is clearly one of them.

Liberty Global's full year results are out in a few weeks, so perhaps we might find out then, although normally they don't talk about this sort of stuff.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Makes it even more intriguing.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

The FT front page article on this today specifically rules out VM being part of the deal.

Malone has spent all this time buying separate European cable cos, only to split them off again and sell them. Doesn't make sense at all.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Worth more together than individually?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

That sounds right - Vodafone says the talks are regarding continental european assets, so presumably not VM.
http://tools.eurolandir.com/tools/Pr...code=uk-vod&v=

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I've not heard of any asset swaps, just Liberty selling assets in some European countries to Vodafone.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

So what do we reckon will happen here? Is this Liberty selling most of their European cable business' to Vodafone like UPC and keeping VM for themselves? Perhaps as a possible prelude to merging VM with with their American companies. Don't forget Malone now controls Scripps, the owner of UKTV (Dave, UK Gold etc) or will. That deal hasn't finalised yet.

I don't get what his thinking is here.

Malone and Fries constantly talk about scale. They have that with their European operations, but unlike America, their European cable cos operate in different countries, different languages, laws etc etc. Perhaps they are just tired of running such disparately operations, but why buy them in the first place?

Perhaps they just want to concentrate on the English speaking world and sod everything else??

I think we need to keep an eye on the wider media landscape too here as Malone was talking to Viacom and CBS last year about a possible deal between them.

At the moment, Viacom and CBS are talking about merging back together again, so perhaps ultimately the new CBS/Viacom may become part of Malone's empire at some point.

Everyone is worried about Amazon, Netflix, Apple and Facebook. It's why Mudoch has sold out.

Malone now has significant media interests, but they are still much smaller than the new Disney to be, the new AT&T/Time Warner company (when that happens) Comcast/NBC and the likes of Amazon haven't really yet put all their tanlks on the field yet, they will..

Here's a quick reminder of what Malone de facto controls, if not owns:

Virgin Media
all3media (one of the UK's largest production houses) which makes stuff like Midsomer Murders, Hollyoaks and Wolf Hall.

Discovery
Eurosport
Scripps - the owner of UKTV
F1
Charter - the 2nd biggest cable co in America
Starz
OVC and HSN
a share of Lionsgate and not forgetting almost 10% of ITV.

and that's just the main stuff. If that were all merged together, that would be significant in itself, but merge all that with Viacom/CBS or someone else and you have an aboslute global goliath.

If that were to happen, expect a ITV-Ch5 merger soon afterwards.

Still no mobile deal, yet.

---------- Post added at 21:29 ---------- Previous post was at 21:07 ----------

And just from my predecessor thread to this one, thread here:

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...6#post35780236

A few posts from there:

My thinking here is, and there were numerous posts about it from others in my old thread, as Vodafone is being squeezed in the UK where once it was dominate, could it sell its UK operation to Malone?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Vodafone is looking to expand in the UK not shrink. There are two viable options for Vodafone when it comes to buying a competitor Virgin Media and TalkTalk. Both have established customer bases with full quadplay service offering, and would be relatively easy to integrate into the VFUK operation. If VF doesn't get hold of Virgin Media, then they will go after TalkTalk as that is a business ready to be bought, spending little under £2bn would net Vodafone 4m+ customers compared to the probably £15-£17bn needed for VM.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I know what Vodafone want, including considering launching their own pay tv service, but where once they were dominate in their field, they're now the number three player.

Lets not forget 5g. Mobile companies need fibre networks to help them power their mobile networks if we're all going to download hd/4k films onto mobile devices in seconds. VM has a fibre network, so does Talktalk, albeit a smaller one.

I don't see TalkTalk surviving much longer in any case after their data breach, so Vodafone could in theory buy both of them.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

After being one of the TalkTalk data breach victims my view is the quicker Talk Talk are taken over by responsible owners, the better. I would rather forego access to the internet than become a Talk Talk customer again.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I think you very much pay for what you get in this case. Although TalkTalk will be cheaper to buy outright, Vodafone would have to invest a few billion quid into it to bring it up to spec. VM is currently running well and expanding and you get a lot more infrastructure for your money.

Hard to say really. Voda needs to do something, they are not exactly competitive at the moment.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

VF sacked off launching their own PayTV service because it was a pain in the arse to run, cancelled at considerable cost getting out of the carriage agreements.

VF is already prepped for 5G, money ready and waiting to be spent. You forget VF has about £72bn on its balance sheet waiting to be spent, its not like they don't have the means to do it.

---------- Post added at 16:38 ---------- Previous post was at 16:33 ----------

I don't disagree with anything you say, it just comes down to money if I'm honest. TT is easier to justify given its relatively cheap price but also crucially its customer base which is comparable to VM. Vodafone has its own large fibre network which would integrate well with TT, so infrastructure side I don't think thats a worry.

VM is a more advanced company that is true, it is well established and has a proper solid quadplay offering. I just don't think Vodafone is readsy to splash the £15bn+ on one market alone, given they already have a sizable foothold and a rapidly growing broadband customer base.

I just think VM will cost too much, its a prize asset, just not one VF needs.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Any deal does not include UK or RoI, the JV with VF & Ziggo may also go entirely back to LG as part of any deal.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Talk Talks brand has been seriously damaged by its constant data breaches perhaps the only way forward is to be adsorbed by another company, another company who knows what their doing.


TalkTalk's share price plummets 14% after dividend is cut again as it ramps up fibre broadband roll-out

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/m...#ixzz56WpnjgRN

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Instead of being called Talktalk, it'll be Walkwalk soon. The company is finished in my opinion. If the share price continues to fall it will cease to be a FTSE250 company and all the fund managers will pull out of it, thus sinking the share price further.

As to the comments about Vodafone buying Talktalk, why bother now, in light of this latest news? They'll just let it collapse and get it for next to nothing. I reckon Vodafone are keeping hold of all that dosh, because they regret pulling out of America, so they might re-merge with Verizon at some point.

I was unaware Vodafone had cancelled their tv plans, thanks for highlighting that here. Are there any articles available to read about why they did this? If they were about to merge with VM, then fair enough, but that doesn't look likely at the moment.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media signs deal to make sci-fi series with Amazon

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...mazon-the-feed

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

https://www.uswitch.com/tv/news/2017...ay_tv_service/

and I work for Vodafone.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media Reports Preliminary Q4 2017 Results.

http://www.libertyglobal.com/pdf/pre...017-Report.pdf

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Up to 4,000 residents in 12 villages in Hampshire's Test Valley and Dun Valley will be able to access "ultrafast" internet from late 2019. They all paid a £300 connection fee.
"While Virgin Media is already active in other rural areas, until now it has done so by extending its existing urban operations. What makes the new scheme unique is that the network is being built from scratch."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43372054A

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin and TalkTalk discuss deal over broadband sharing.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...dband-sharing/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Interesting. I thought TalkTalk was on its last legs with some kind of buyout looming in its future.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Yes that is what l thought so it was quite a surprise to read this.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

We have been thinking maybe this "broadband sharing" is just part of plans for Virgin Media to takeover of TalkTalk.

We mean don't TalkTalk use BT wire right now to offer their Network???

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I can’t imagine VM would want to buy talk talk. Liberty sold their non cable customer base to TT to focus on cable...

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

TV3 secure exclusive Irish rights to Champions League and Europa League next season.

https://www.galwaydaily.com/news/tv3...e-next-season/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Something doesn’t add up here though. What’s in it for Virgin (apart from some money presumably)?

TalkTalk could lay fibre in Virgin’s ducts but not vice versa as TalkTalk don’t really have any. Even their backhaul from the BT exchanges is rented fibre running through Openreach ducts.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

....exactly.I'm not sure if the article is accurately interpreting what may happen.

TalkTalk have already done trials with Sky over sharing costs of FTTP infrastructure and I see this as the same sort of thing. I doubt VM will allow access to its existing network, but we'll see. This seems to be about sharing the cost of going into new areas.

As VM has found out with its Project Lightening expansion, it takes a lot of time and dosh. So, to farm out half the cost and work to someone else makes a lot of sense to me, especially as TalkTalk isn't a serious competitor anymore.

I think the key thing on future networks, will be to see what the result of who buys Sky is and whether that organisation makes a serious play to invest in FTTP infrastructure or not.

Everyone knows, regardless of whatever rules there are, that BT is not going to make it easy for fibre operators to use its infrastructure. We need at least one other network other than BT and VM to give us some choice.

I would expect the small FTTP operators (CityFibre, Hyperoptic etc) to join forces too at some point and/or perhaps they'll be bought by someone like Sky or Vodafone.

There are many nationwide fibre optic networks. They run along the canals, bridges etc all across the country. Where we lack is those lines going "the last mile" into homes and BT will do fcuk all about FTTP unless it has to.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

They are in the process of offloading the Talk Talk TV Store to Rakuten.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I think you're right on this. TalkTalk's own infrastructure has been in conjunction with City Fibre and Sky up to now. It's now focusing away from mobile and TV to broadband and supporting infrastructure so this would make sense for the company.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I second this, it wouldn't make much sense from a Virgin or Libglob perspective.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Mobile prices are going up 3.3% from July 2nd a £30 bill will increase £11.88 a year or 99p a month

http://metro.co.uk/2018/05/14/virgin...4/?ito=cbshare

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

This could prove interesting. Mockeridge is leaving VM.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...-prepares-log/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

This one is a bit strange as VM has not confirmed he's leaving and the recruitment currently tsking place is for Dana Strong's replacement. There has been a lot of change in LGI recently. Earlier in the year, LGI was busy merging its operations (Austria/Switzerland, and Czech/Slovakia) only to unravel them and start to sell off its European businesses. It could be Tom Mockridge has decided now is a good time to move on. Interestingly, "A spokesman for Liberty Global said the company was not seeking to replace Mr Mockridge.
He said: "We are recruiting for a replacement for Dana Strong, Virgin Media’s former chief operating officer."

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Maybe Liberty Global will look to sell off Virgin Media.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Who too?.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

There was always the theory that there would be three large players in each country plus smaller players like TalkTalk. And the theory went that they would all tie up on technology lines.

So, in the UK you would have:
- an incumbent telco (BT) part/wholly-owned by a combined Deutsche Telekom/Orange
- a cable company part/wholly owned by LGI/Vodafone/Altice
- a satellite company part/wholly owned by Fox

The French equivalent would be:
- Incumbent telco: Orange. At some stage to merge with Deutsche Telekom
- Cable company: Altice. At some stage to merge with LGI/Vodafone
- Satelite company: Canal+. At some stage, this loss-making company to be acquired by Fox/Sky, more likely if Universal Music is floated. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...sal-music-free

Whether in an era of IPTV, nationalism and Netflix such consolidation will still happen remains to be seen.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

...Yes, agree. Plus to add further confusion into the mix, BT is selling all its EE masts too. But I think the tech will be less relevant as lines will, and are being blurred, between telcos, cable cos and sat cos.

Again, another exxample of a article contradicitng itself.

At the top of the article it says they are, "to seek a new chief operating officer with a view to promotion to the top job next year." And then the exact opposite at the bottom of the article. What are we to make of that?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

It's very strange. I just wonder if:
1) The Telegraph got the COO mixed up with Chief Executive as the COO is the person VM confirmed as leaving.
2) VM are keeping it low key and it's true.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

What masts are they going to use then?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

WHAT????

Where the hell have you got that nonsense from?

If anything they are building more masts not selling them. That is just about the biggest load of bollox I have read on here.

Why would a network sell their masts?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

It's just a rumour that they will sell and lease them back the same way as companies might build an office then sell it to a property company and rent it back. This could free up money for investment in other areas.
However, apparently the masts whilst on EE's balance sheet are committed to a joint venture with Three so it may not even be possible even if BT wanted to do it. #financialengineering

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media's £240 early exit fee is unlawful, Ofcom provisionally concludes, as customers could receive compensation

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...les-customers/

---------- Post added at 14:00 ---------- Previous post was at 13:33 ----------

Virgin Media have dropped the monthly cost of the VIP bundle to £79 per month and the Full House package is now £49 per month

Both offers run until May 28th

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...Full-House-VIP

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media acquires Dungarvan cable television company.

https://www.businessworld.ie/news-fr...ny-570883.html

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

We are on an look out for the full list of channels for Casey Cablevision so we can work out what may close when Virgin Media Ireland take the keys.

Thanks for any help.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media are doubling broadband speeds for new customers only at no extra charge

Player Bundle
Average Download Speed was 54Mbps now 108Mbps
PRICE: £29 per month for 12 months (£48 thereafter)

Mix Bundle

Average Download Speed was 108Mbps now 213Mbps
PRICE: £45 per month for 12 months (£55 thereafter)

Full House Bundle

Average Download Speed was 108Mbps now 213Mbps
PRICE: £55 per month for 12 months (£70 thereafter)

The offer is expected run until July 31st

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

A precursor to another round of speed doubling, perhaps?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

It would not surprise me if they announced something in the Autumn..

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Maybe when the price rise announcement is made? ;)

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Yes no doubt that will be coming soon..

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Sorry, bit late coming back to this nonsense and bollox as you put it....

Here's the link to the premium Telegraph article I got the story from:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...band-upgrades/

---------- Post added at 17:32 ---------- Previous post was at 17:31 ----------

The same ones, presumably.

---------- Post added at 17:42 ---------- Previous post was at 17:32 ----------

Discovery get international gold PGA rights:

Lionsgate buys talent agency:

Reminder: John Malone de facto controls both companies.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Interesting case: Virgin Media sues Durham council over its charges for allowing it to lay fibre
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...fibre-rollout/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I just posted in the Comcast thread, but relevant for here too.

The AT&T Time Warner merger was cleared by a American judge last night which will now pave the way for the next wave off mergers.

As well as the battle for Fox, I expect John Malone to be at the centre of the next batch of mergers involving his various interests from Discovery, Charter, Lionsgate and others.

The CBS/Viacom remerger is delayed at the moment, but once that gets sorted out, as I've said before, I would not be surprised if John Malone merges some of his companies in with them and probably include Verizon too.

I said this in post 6 of this thread:Since that post, Lionsgate now own Starz and Discovery now own Scripps. So, although things are not going as quickly as I originally thought they would, it's still on course.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

John Malone Buys $33 Million More in Discovery Stock further increasing his grip on the company. He denies it's related to any potential future M&A.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/dis...ock-1529494200

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Maybe increase in speeds coming now? EE will be offering upto 300mbs connections now.

https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status...29758885269510

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

only in G.Fast enabled areas.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

What will be interesting is how they advertise the speeds once uptake increases. Only around half of the UK population lives within range of a cabinet that could serve just under 160Mbps potentially so advertising may reflect this in a big way. What is advertised as "average 300Mbps" may well end up around 120-150Mps in 6 months.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Lutz Schüler, currently CEO of German cable operator Unitymedia, will become Chief Operating Officer of Virgin Media from September 10, 2018.

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018...om-unitymedia/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

He looks German too, in a 80's Hasselhoff type way.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

A couple of titbits of news about John Malone:

Malone will retire from the board of Lionsgate in the Autumn. He will retain his share in Lionsgate.

https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb...ons-gate-board

Malone increases his shareholding of Discovery last month, a few hours before the AT&T/Time Warner merger was cleared:

https://www.barrons.com/articles/dis...ock-1529494200

With all the media mergers and those to come, I say join the dots on this...

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

One last titbit of news I've picked up on, regards one of Murdoch's companies called Endemol Shine. This is the Anglo/Dutch "indy" responsible for stuff such as Big Brother, Masterchef, Merlin and Peaky Blinders.

With Disney now likely to win the battle for Fox, Disney is not interested in Shine, especially as Fox only own 50% of it. The other half is owned by a venture capital fund, thus Fox is selling it.

Malone is interested in buying Shine according to various sources including Hollywood Reporter. Remember that Malone already owns the UK's largest other "indy" All3media. By owning Shine too, Malone would control a vast range of British tv. He still has that 10% of ITV and now owns the Irish version of ITV too.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...rdroom-1127466

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

As a matter of fact they soon to rebrand TV3 to Virgin TV. I wonder if they are planning to buy the reminder of ITV and do the same.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Liberty Global customers to benefit from real-time updates about engineer visits

https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17220111...ngineer-visits

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Malone retires from the Charter Board, just days after he retires from the Lionsgate Board.

It maybe his advancing years and he simply wants to slow down now, but this could be a "signal" that the long expected (at least by me) consolidation of his various assets, maybe about to happen.

https://advanced-television.com/2018...ctor-emeritus/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Does anyone know the actual percentage of Discovery that Malone now owns, after increasing his shareholding at the end of 2017 and last month?

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media momentum fuels LG Q3.

https://advanced-television.com/2018...m-fuels-lg-q3/

https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=231070

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

EE and Virgin Media fined £13.3m for overcharging their customers.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...ging-customers

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media tops Ofcom pay TV complaints

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2019...tv-complaints/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media tests 8Gbps broadband - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47130989

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media trials hyperfast multi-gigabit home broadband - Press release

https://www.virginmedia.com/corporat...broadband.html

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Liberty Global in talks to sell Swiss arm.
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2019...iberty-global/

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media Reports Q4 2018 Results.

https://www.libertyglobal.com/wp-con...018-Report.pdf

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

(Confirmed) Extending our speed leadership with spring launch of 500 Mbps broadband in the U.K.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Virgin Media Ponders Opening Up UK Network to Rival ISPs.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...ival-isps.html

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Not sure about that. I certainly haven’t heard anything.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Only time will tell if there is any substance to these rumours.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I can see the chain of events now...

VM wholesale's access to its competitors
LG earn a tidy sum from it all
VM's accounts look nice and rosy as a result of increased income
LG sells VM to Vodafone at an increased valuation
LG rake it in from the sale

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

VF won't spend the £15bn+ necessary in one market to buy VM. They couldn't justify it to their shareholders, more likely they would use that money to fund Cityfibre even further. Though that doesn't rule out wholesale access to VM's network either.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Surprise rival to VM and BT:

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...fer-price-deal

---------- Post added at 15:00 ---------- Previous post was at 14:55 ----------

I suppose they'll have to weigh up the fact that it looks good to their regulator and will boost their income against the fact that it will help their competitors (including Sky) and remove a USP:

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...e-update-speed

If they do this though, maybe VM will again* tie it in with access to the missing Sky channels from their TV service, namely Sky Atlantic.

* In the past they negotiated the supply of many missing channels in return for selling their own channels to Sky.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

This rumour comes about every couple of years and usually leads to nothing.

Still, business is business and I can see a business case for it. I just don't see what's in it for the competition when they're already investing in their own networks and *DSL is starting to seriously catch up.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

VM may open up their network, if, as I expect, Liberty eventually sell off VM to Vodafone, Comcast or whoever.

But as said, the story comes around every few years and nothing comes of it. Having their own network gives VM a major advantage over Sky and other competitors and I doubt they will relinquish that advantage any time soon.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

It will NOT be Comcast as they own Sky.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

That has been the rumour for several years, but I see no indications that VM will be sold to Vodafone.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Malone is getting old and wants to sell. LG is too small on its own now, so either Malone links all his various assets up, or he sells.

I see the cable cos sold off by LG to Vodafone (which gets cleared soon by the European Commission) as the warm up act to come.

Why not?

Comcast is a cable company, by nature.