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Originally Posted by Rob
Unfortunately, Virgin Media will probably take no notice of this.
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I have no wish to risk my account here so I won't respond to that...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob
What they will take notice of is customer churn. If they start to see too many people giving up TV, or significantly downgrading, that will be when they prick up their ears.
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That's part of the problem, I think. VM *do* have some unique services, like VOD, and I can't be the only one staying with them because of that uniqueness. It's also cheaper for me, I think, to take all three services (TV, broadband and phone) together rather than go to Sky for TV, even if I didn't take HD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob
It's not that long ago when the Mr Berkett (I think it was him) basically suggested HD was not important. VOD is the kingpin for VM. Whether that is the right choice in the long term remains to be seen, given that broadband accessibility is generally increasing so internet subscribers can get a lot of Player type stuff anyway.
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I think it was him too, but I'm not sure. Someone important, certainly.
VM are right to throw a fair bit of money at VOD because it's something they can offer, in HD no less, to every single digital customer. That's something Sky will *never* be able to match - DSL could probably support SD VOD to a significant proportion of their customers, but it will likely be years before it could carry HD VOD to anything but a tiny minority. Taking bandwidth away from the internet connection, probably only being able to support one STB using VOD at a time, and not knowing exactly which customers have speeds capable of sustaining it.
*However,* DSL speeds are only going to get better. If BT implement fibre to the cabinet on a large scale then the average attainable speed will skyrocket, and VOD over DSL will suddenly become very viable indeed. There may also be more incremental advancements to DSL technology, providing extra speed.
Basically, at some point the VOD playing field is going to look a lot more level - and what are VM going to do then? They *need* to be planning ahead, making sure they offer at least as much as Sky, for their own sake as much as their customers'.
Sam