Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen
Put it this way, VM are trying to agree terms and carrige rights for a few HD channels however these things can take a while and when Mr Berkett said they would be a few months thats probably the time they thought it would take. .
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Maybe more than just a few HD channels....
What Berkett also said at that same time and was mentioned here (but seems to have been forgotten) is that all the HD content locked up by Sky (which is pretty much all HD stuff anyway) had recently become available to VM. So that means if VM and Sky can agree a price we could see HD films and sport on cable as well as SKY 1 HD, FX HD, History HD, National Geographic HD and many others either directly or indirectly controlled by Sky.
But the bad news is that I don't see this happening anytime for at least a year for the reason that there isn't the capacity for the HD channels until analogue is totally switched off.
VM may have room for a few HD channels now and may launch channels such as CH4 HD, but for it to be worthwhile for VM to launch lots of HD, that MUST include films and sports. There is no point going to all the cost of upgrading things for HD, as well as all the marketing costs, if HD films and sports aren't part of the deal.
Berkett has made it quite clear that VM's priority at the moment is broadband, where VM has superiority over rivals. I'm sure HD will come to cable, but probably not for another 18 months or so.