Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Outgoing chief executive will take over from Dame Amelia Fawcett, who is retiring after fours years in the role.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013...an-media-group

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Is that with immediate effect or 'coming soon' :D

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Best wishes for Neil. I know not everyone was a fan but I think he did really good things during his time at Virgin. I remember the TV service going from good to great during his reign.

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Can't say that I've noticed any improvements. What changed?

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Lots from a customer perspective, main things I can think of being

Fastest broadband which forced others to do the same
Free HD to XL customers
ESPN free to XL customers
True on demand
TiVo
Wi if on the underground stations

And from an investor perspective he turned a dog of a company into something which somebody was prepared to pay 24 billion dollars for

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

When Neil joined Virgin only had 1 HD channel being BBC HD.
When Neil joined Virgin did not carry the SKY basic channels.
When Neil joined Virgin did not offer BBC iPlayer, ITV player, Demand 5 or SKY on demand.
TiVo was chosen as Virgins next generation platform under Neil.

There has been plenty of other little bits and bobs added to Virgin TV during Neil's reign, but the above are the main points. Imagine going back to only 1 HD channel, no SKY basics, a limited catch up service and no TiVo!

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

I think Berkett steadied the ship that is UK cableco and has made UK cable a serious competitor against Sky and BT, rather than the laughing stock it always was.

I won't sing Berkett's praises, as I think he could have done a lot more and faster and he's been paid one hell of a lot of money for his efforts. But in the overview of UK cableco bosses over the last 20+ years of UK cable, no doubt he is one of the better ones.

Now we have real cable people who are the bosses of Uk cable and not just accountants, particulary Mike Fries, Liberty's CEO, who has been invloved in cable for 30 years, shame he's not the owner as I prefer him to Malone.

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

You will love this then.

Go to 'Mike Fries interviewed by Fox Business at the Cable Show' video on the following link: http://www.libertyglobal.com/

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Already seen it. I'm waiting for the day when he announces that they are dropping tivo for horizon....If you think it won't happen, listen to his repeated comments for the reason they bought VM. Scale. You can only do that with the same stuff.

Won't be this year, or next. But it will come.

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Virgin Media is more than just a "cableco" it is a major telecommunications company, and derives a lot of revenue from business and wholesale.

I hope the Liberty Group learn from this.

Virgin Media alone makes up 40% of the new Liberty Groups revenue, considering the number of other companies in the group, it's obvious they are not maximising their potential.

I hope that they learn from VMs success and try to transfer that success across the other companies in the group, rather than the reverse.

But i've seen it happen several times in mergers/ buyouts.

Re: Virgin Media's Neil Berkett named as new chair of Guardian Media Group.
 

Everything I've seen and read keeps making me think that Liberty Global are going to push Virgin as a broadband business first, and a TV provider second.