Is BT a threat to Virgin Media
 

Well with BT stating they want to be the number 2 pay tv provide in the UK within 3 years and they have been given the green light an budget to do it is VM under threat as an independent company?

BT Went out to spend £2 billionon football but only spent £700 million an stating they want to be number 2 means they know they can't beat Sky so it must be VM customers they are targeting especially when you consider it's VM Cable areas that are getting infinity first.

Also BT stated the remaining £1.3billion will be put into getting content should VM be worried??

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

No.* Next!

(* Okay. "Not as yet" is probably a better answer.)

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

We're not getting infinity first. In fact, Bt currently don't have plans to cable my area at all, according to their customer services.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

They might have a chance if they:

1. Offer a better PVR than TiVo
2. Offer more HD channels than Virgin (Currently zero!)
3. Charge less than Virgin for TV, Broadband and Phone
4. Start to carry SKY Movies, all SKY Sports channels, Premier Sports, Boxnation etc...
5. Offer a better on demand / catch up service than Virgin
6. Make their content available on the go i.e. via mobile and online
7. Add another 100 or so channels that are current missing from their line-up

If £1.3billion can help them do this then yes. I suspect You View will have more customers than Virgin in 3 years time.

It's all good news for us the consumer. I'd love to see a price war!

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

Price war? For me Freesat/view satisfies my telly needs fine. Then again, I have no interest in bid-up tv+3 HD on my iPhone.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

Yeah. If Virgin, SKY and BT start offering similar services to one another, and are all targeting the same customer base, then you should start to see some competitive pricing. People who want and like pay TV could be the winners in the long term.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

I would love to see it happen! But I cannot see them cutting each others throats, they will probably come to a nice cosy arrangement.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

I'm sure that's illegal.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

What cosy arrangement is that then?.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

Indeed :)

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

Virgin can compete with bt very easily, they need to make a pvr that's like bt vision, a TiVo over Ethernet rather than coax cable. Have all channels streaming, sky sports 1234 etc.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

I believe that that is one of their longer-term goals.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

VM should be worried. However, I suspect they've seen the statement and are already trying to work out how they can compete.

It may also be why they are throwing a lot of money into installing Wifi points. At least in towns.

VM already have the servers in place for their mobile TV site. I think for a start, they need to make the existing Virgin Media mobile player free for ALL Virgin Media customers.

This would probably be a cheaper way of reaching most of the population than installing new cable.

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

I don't agree, Stuart. BT have a very long way to go before they are anywhere near Virgin Media's offerings.

However, VM will need to factor in the fact that they have a new competitor for the longer term. Let's hope they have a better relationship with BT than they do with Sky!

Re: Is BT a threat to VIrginmedia
 

To answer the OP's question , both Sky and VM are under threat from BT's TV service however currently both Sky and VM offer vastly superior offerings. BT currently don't carry any linear HD channels and have very few pay TV channels , however I'm sure they'll be looking to strenghthen their position.