BSkyB bullish about NTL threat
I found this on The Guardian web site from Wednesday January 31, 2007.
The BSkyB chief executive, James Murdoch, shrugged off the threat posed by the rebrand of rival NTL as Virgin Media, saying the satellite broadcaster offers better quality and better prices than cable can muster.
Virgin Media will launch - presumably accompanied by one of Sir Richard Branson's trademark stunts - next Thursday.
Speaking after Sky announced a mixed set of half-year results, James Murdoch said:
Quote:
"I think there will be a huge amount of noise ... but basically customers are pretty smart and when you look at what we are doing in the market place today ... you can get [from us] a dramatically better quality TV, broadband and telephony experience than you can from Virgin."
"We are very confident that the product we have is of better quality, in terms of TV and broadband and telephony,"
|
he added, stressing that Sky is also currently the only high definition TV broadcaster in the UK.
The BSkyB chief financial officer, Jeremy Darroch, was rather more blunt:
Quote:
|
"The bottom line is we don't think a name change affects the fundamental issues they [Virgin Media] still have around product development, customer service and pricing flexibility and we think customers will see that."
|