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-   -   General : Virgin Media customers risk football blackout (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=33712770)

Mr K 22-06-2024 16:40

Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Quote:

Virgin Media customers risk losing access to Premier League football matches amid a row with TNT Sports over broadcasting fees.

Executives at Virgin Media O2 are locked in negotiations with TNT, which is jointly owned by BT and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), about renewal terms for their contract.

One source said the companies were in “hot dispute” as Virgin Media was seeking a significant price reduction for the new three-year deal, while TNT is trying to maintain the existing terms. Virgin Media is understood to have argued that its cost per subscriber has risen sharply due to declining viewing figures on the channel.

If the two sides fail to strike a deal, Virgin Media customers will lose access to TNT Sports when the current deal expires at the end of July.

TNT, which rebranded from BT Sport last year, owns the rights to Premier League and Champions League football matches, as well as Premiership Rugby games. The channel, which combines BT’s sport offering with WBD’s Eurosport, also offers a host of other sports, including MotoGP, WWE, French Open tennis and this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

It is understood that access to Eurosport is not affected by the negotiations, meaning the Olympics will still be available to viewers regardless of the outcome.

Virgin Media customers can watch TNT thanks to a so-called carriage deal between the two companies, which sees the pay-TV provider pay a fee to offer the channel to subscribers.

However, Virgin sparked anger last year when it removed the channel from its TV bundles, meaning it is now a paid add-on.

If the companies fail to renew the contract, Virgin could risk losing customers, although sources insisted that TNT could still be accessed through other subscriptions.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...remier-league/

Numbers have fallen as they've taken BT sports out of the main tv pack. This is a cock up of VMs making again.

1701-e 22-06-2024 16:48

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr K (Post 36177593)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...remier-league/

Numbers have fallen as they've taken BT sports out of the main tv pack. This is a cock up of VMs making again.

The removal from the top pack was Discovery's request

jfman 22-06-2024 17:21

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Indeed, Discovery are just paving the way to the low cost streaming future.

Hom3r 22-06-2024 20:17

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
The trouble is Paramount, Di$covery & Di$ney all pulled their channels from VM, Sky etc, and put them on their own premium platform.

I used to watch NCIS on Fox, but no it was put on Di$ney, and now they are wondering why the viewing figures have dropped.

I once actually worked out how much it would cost if you bough all these premium channels and excluding VM, Sky etc it was about £120 per month

Paul 22-06-2024 23:43

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Hardly a football blackout, TNT are a small fraction of the premiership games.
Sky have the majority - I dont have TNT at all, and still manage to watch tons of football every week.

Dude111 23-06-2024 02:06

Im glad your not affected Paul......

All these stupid disputes dont have to be if the networks werent so bloody greedy!!

Stephen 23-06-2024 02:33

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Paramount+ costs me nothing as I get it free with Sky Movies on Sky.

We pay for TNT Sport but mainly the wife that wanted it. I don't like watching Football on TV. Just not the same as being there.

ozsat 23-06-2024 08:08

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Discovery+ is free too from Sky and BTtv/EEtv. You get the sports channels included if they are in your Sky/BT/EE pack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen (Post 36177631)
Paramount+ costs me nothing as I get it free with Sky Movies on Sky.

We pay for TNT Sport but mainly the wife that wanted it. I don't like watching Football on TV. Just not the same as being there.


Inactive Digital 23-06-2024 10:21

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
It's difficult from that article to work out exactly what the arguments are. But, perhaps, Virgin pay a cost per subscriber but subject to a minimum annual fee/collar paid by Virgin built into the terms. So the cost per subsciber would have worked out cheaper when more customers had XL. But now VM are still paying the minimum annual fee to TNT, but with far fewer customers subscribing to the channels?

Legendkiller2k 23-06-2024 14:02

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Virgin media never learn from their past mistakes.

Mr K 23-06-2024 14:11

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Tbh I'm not that bothered about the Premiership. It was nice for National League football and Aussie cricket in winter, but I can live without it. Most of these things are free to stream anyway if you know the right places.

However it could be great leverage to get VM bills lowered come contract negotiations. I will of course tell them I'm devastated to lose TNT and mention the SKY word ;) . Worked with the similar UKtv dispute a few years ago, discounts/compensation aplenty.

Paul 23-06-2024 15:19

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k (Post 36177653)
Virgin media never learn from their past mistakes.

Thats a pretty vague statement, what do you mean exactly ?

jfman 23-06-2024 17:55

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k (Post 36177653)
Virgin media never learn from their past mistakes.

What are they supposed to do?

Discovery as a content provider want to extract top dollar and are charging Sky customers £25 a month. Wholesaling it to Virgin at any price undermines their own model.

The rationale why Setanta, ESPN and BT at first were keen to wholesale because they’d fledgeling models. Fixed, guaranteed income was helpful.

Legendkiller2k 24-06-2024 13:58

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul (Post 36177660)
Thats a pretty vague statement, what do you mean exactly ?

SKY, UKTV but on reflection Jfman does have a very good point in his reply to me too, maybe i was to harsh on vm.

Media Boy UK 24-06-2024 14:18

Re: Virgin Media customers risk football blackout
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k (Post 36177715)
SKY, UKTV but on reflection Jfman does have a very good point in his reply to me too, maybe i was to harsh on vm.

Also BT Sports did launch on Virgin - two week later then launch date.


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