Today's (Monday) Grauniad has a section on who's winning - if anyone - between Sky and Virgin Media.
Quote:
Branson v Murdoch - who is winning?
In the midst of a battle it's often hard to tell who is even gaining advantage, let alone actually winning. The government's decision to refer Sky's 17% ITV shareholding to regulators over concerns that it might bring with it undue influence must have brightened Richard Branson's day. But then there was the skirmish over the price Sky wanted Virgin Media to pay for some of its channels - notably Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News - which spiralled out of control with the result that those channels are now not available to Virgin Media subscribers. A plague on both your houses, you might say.
But for Virgin this is starting to look like a most spectacular own goal. Just as it is attempting to leave behind the company's painful history of terrible service, the loss of the Sky channels has created another great customer service nightmare so redolent of times past. Service centres are reportedly overwhelmed with customers wanting to discuss their contracts. And for every customer that can't get through or has to wait ages for an answer, anything achieved by the rebrand will have been undone.
Whatever the merits of the arguments, and for all that it is costing Sky millions in lost revenues, Virgin's decision to take on Sky in this way and at this point suggests that big egos have got the better of careful strategy - or at least that's how some in the City are already seeing it.
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...031508,00.html (requires free registration)