Cable Forum - View Single Post - Acquisition by Sky of Virgin Media Television

Ignitionnet · 05-06-2010, 14:33

Sorry, that post doesn't really make sense.

5 years from now the two will be in the middle of a 9 year agreement so nothing will happen.

Virgin 1 is a single Freeview slot, Sky won't kill off Freeview they just want to pimp premium content through it.

Sky won't lose 3 - 4 million to Virgin, that's silly numbers and would require basically every Sky subscriber in a VM passed area to switch.

Lastly Sky don't exist to serve as many direct customers as possible, they exist to make their shareholders as much money as possible. Whether they do this through retail sales or a combination of retail sales and wholesale doesn't matter. They will be expecting to lose some customers but likewise will expect this loss of revenue to be more than compensated through increased ad and wholesale revenue.

That's the big and the small picture in the Sky mind, shareholder value, nothing to do with 'domination'. Excessively monopolistic behaviour would just get regulators from Ofcom upwards through the Competition Commission and the EC jumping on them and Sky really aren't that stupid. They pick fights with regulators because it's their duty to their shareholders to do everything possible to resist the regulation, not to commit suicide and get split into at least two sections - broadcaster and content provider.

05-06-2010, 14:33	#155
Ignitionnet Inactive Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire Age: 48 Posts: 13,995	Re: Acquisition by Sky of Virgin Media Television Sorry, that post doesn't really make sense. 5 years from now the two will be in the middle of a 9 year agreement so nothing will happen. Virgin 1 is a single Freeview slot, Sky won't kill off Freeview they just want to pimp premium content through it. Sky won't lose 3 - 4 million to Virgin, that's silly numbers and would require basically every Sky subscriber in a VM passed area to switch. Lastly Sky don't exist to serve as many direct customers as possible, they exist to make their shareholders as much money as possible. Whether they do this through retail sales or a combination of retail sales and wholesale doesn't matter. They will be expecting to lose some customers but likewise will expect this loss of revenue to be more than compensated through increased ad and wholesale revenue. That's the big and the small picture in the Sky mind, shareholder value, nothing to do with 'domination'. Excessively monopolistic behaviour would just get regulators from Ofcom upwards through the Competition Commission and the EC jumping on them and Sky really aren't that stupid. They pick fights with regulators because it's their duty to their shareholders to do everything possible to resist the regulation, not to commit suicide and get split into at least two sections - broadcaster and content provider.