[jfman]

The real issue is Virgin have no incentive to resolve the issues with their encryption technology.

If I remember right, Sky pay around £5 a month per subscriber to third parties (which will include UKTV/Virgin). Virgin pay for Sky Premiums per (legal) subscriber who take that option meaning profit to Virgin is minimal, and around £2-2.50 per XL subscriber to Setanta leaving a minimal extent to which TV is profitable, especially when you consider how TV XL is bundled with other services.

3 for £30 with XL probably makes less for Virgin than 2 for £20 BB/Phone.

It may even be possible that if Virgin resolved these issues it'd push away phone/BB subscribers to "better value" triple play services like Tiscali or Sky.

When one considers the cost of replacing the firmware on boxes, cards and potentially some of the boxes it isn't worth the risk especially in the absence of a clear choice of encryption provider to move to.