Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

Was just browsing around and came across this:

Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices



Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/2/26/virgin-media-take-bskyb-cheaper-football-prices/#ixzz0gkYBjGKa

Now although this seems a fairly obvious avenue for Virgin Media to take, it just shows that it is ever more the likely

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

This would be really good but some things need factoring in....

First of all like the article says Ofcom need to take action and regulate Sky to make sure they sell their packages at a fair rate to their rivals. We all know Ofcom don't have a pair when it comes to Sky. Plus the tories have said right out if they get in they will be restricting ofcoms authority.

Two. Virgin would have to sell at a major loss to their customers to be able to sustain this. Because even at a fairer price they would have to lower their prices to truly compete with Sky. VM's profits will take a hit subsidising this.

Three Sky can afford to retail their own packages a whole lot cheaper for a longer period than VM. They could easily afford to go so low that VM can not compete and more people switch to Sky.

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

Ofcom gave their preliminary decision last year and they will find in favour of VM before any change of government.

VM are already extremely price competitive, owning your own network helps a lot!

Yes, I think Sky can retail their channels a lot cheaper, but for how long? When Sky lose the exclusivity of their premium channels and once the rights all come up for negotiation again, they'll just pay a whole lot less. This will enable VM, ESPN and others to get in on the act and buy up premium rights and launch their own channels. Whether this all turns out to be cheaper for us in the long term is debatable.

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

VM say they want to move away from producing their own tv channels though.

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

....that's what the media say. They need their own stuff as leverage against competitors otherwise a situation like the Sky basics fiasco will happen all over again.

To quote a former cableco boss "do we just want to be a utility like a water company and just provide the pipe only, or do we wish to own some of that stuff pumped down the pipe?"

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

Some really great points there! I never considered Sky would lose money from their sports subscriptions that would then in turn cause them to have less buying power next time the rights come up!

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

....it's not just a case that Sky will have less money, but that they'll deliberately choose to pay less anyway for the rights.

Sky have paid a premium price for films, sports rights and HD and that gave them control over that content and sold dishes. When they lose that control, the value of that content automatically diminishes and they will not then pay that premium for it ever again. That is the end of their monopoly, period.

As I said, whether this is better for us in the end, I'm not so sure. You had one premium sports/films supplier, Sky, and paid one price. If ESPN, BT, VM whoever, get top notch sports rights and launch their own channels, we still have to pay for all those channels...

Thanks for the compliment. It's nice to be back on this forum. At least I won't get banned just by mentioning the dreaded O word (Ofcom) on this thread.;)

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

I don't think Sky can lower the retail price too much. The wholesale price is based on it, so that would lower as well imo.

Re: Virgin Media To Take On BSkyB With Cheaper Football Prices
 

Read on

Well, well, well. Who will win? depending on OFCOM ruling in favour of Virgin, BT and others of course.