[GuestUK]

Well, if it comes to dirty tricks, then timing is generally everything, and while I can see some dirty tricks from Sky's side, there definitely seems something slightly fishy on Virgin Media' side too.

The Flextech deal was originally set to expire at the same time as the Sky deal, so the two could have been resolved together, perhaps helping to ensure both sides played fair as they both had something to gain, and the deals could be done side by side. Instead, Virgin strangely decided to put the Sky deal off 3 months, and then did a significantly reduced deal for the flextech channels. Seems a bit of a dangerous thing to do. Were they hoping Sky would do the same back as some sort of gentlemans agreement (so they could carry on with their Sky on Virgin is cheaper than Sky on Sky advertisement, or offer their packages cheaper than Sky).

3 months later, the Virgin Media brand is starting to become more established, video on demand is more ready, V+ is gaining ground, the Virgin channels are doing well. The Sky carriage deal falls through. Virgin plays the victim to gain consumer support against "the bully", making Sky look bad, and then encourages people to use its video on demand (something it has over Sky) as a replacement to the sky channels, they even reduce the price to encourage more usage and get more people onto video on demand. With the freed up money they needed, saved from the Sky deal, they can spend that money on other things, like buying new content, starting new channels and sponsoring big brother, which they may not have had the funds to do before. It's known that Virgin benefitted little from carrying the Sky channels, so getting people to move from them to their own, with their new sports channel with their advertising likely, their video on demand services they profit from, it will encourage more revenue to them than they got. Plus they have all the funds saved from the Sky deal to go on and pursue these ventures. Meanwhile, use the entire fiasco to set the law against Sky and persuade an investigation which could possibly damage Sky's position.

Seems to benefit Virgin quite a bit, and the fact it was put off to fit in with the timing of events happening now and the fact that it seems Sky really wants their channels on Virgin while Virgin are focussing on their new goals and aren't too bothered about sorting something out could indicate dirty tricks on their part. The extra money, the publicity, ofcom against Sky, the removal of competitors to their plans (sport news channel, video on demand), it seems to have worked out quite well for Virgin...