Thread: Virgin Media prepares to offload its content division
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Old 01-03-2009, 16:31   #12
OLD BOY
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Re: Virgin media are selling tv channels
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu View Post
IF, Vm sold the tv channels, surely that would be the end of VM, as they would only have the BB and Phone arm to deal with, And yes this subject did come up several weeks ago, If l am not wrong, VM own Living TV, so they wouldn't sell that, would they, This is starting to get confusing, I only read The Financial Times, as it was brought up on DS. I prefer, The Sun or Mirror, l have read The Telegraph, but that is a Tory paper, and l am NOT Tory.
Just to be clear, if VM sold the TV channels, it would not mean that VM could no longer provide its television service to its subscribers. After all, VM don't own Sky, but you still receive the Sky channels via your cable box.

There may be implications for the company when they sell their channels, however. They will get in the order of £500m for that sale, and the question is, how will they use that money? They could use it to bring down their debt, to improve services to VM customers, to invest in HD or IPTV, or perhaps to buy ITV shares. Given the bitterness that flowed from Sky buying up shares in ITV in 2006, thwarting VM's plans at the time, this must still be an attraction for VM, particularly as those shares have plummeted in value and will therefore be cheaper for VM to buy.

There are synergies in these two businesses and both companies have problems - would a merger help towards solving these problems? I really have no idea!

However, I do believe that it would be a mistake for VM to put itself in a position where it had no content as part of its operation, so if it acquired ITV it would have the more lucrative ITV channels instead of the relatively minor VM and UKTV (part owned) channels as part of its business.
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