Quote:
Originally Posted by passingbat
A year ago, sky had a big advantage over VM channel wise becase of the lack of HD on VM, and Sky was tempting for that reason. I still thought VM had the overall advantage though, plus, I've had many years of excellent service from cable and that counts for a lot in my book. But lack of HD did make me visit the Sky web site a good few times to look at options 
Over the last year, VM have made massive strides sorting that out and from a personal prspective, sky's channel line up only has a small advantage, except for Sky Atlantc, which Id really like. But I think Virgin are right to wait until they can get it at a fair price.
Other people with different tastes may have other views, hence the need for a wide channel selection. |
Got it one, Passingbat. What we want is programme choice and I for one don't care how I get it (except that it should be through VM because I don't want to be paying multiple subscriptions).
When I visit my daughter (who has Sky, only because she can't get cable in her area) we are amazed constantly by how little choice we have, despite the abundance of channels.
The reason for this is that most channels are either totally rubbish or have a very small number of good programmes on them. Even 'popular' channels like Sky 1 only have one or two programmes that I record because most of the schedule is not of any interest to me.
However, you can build a schedule on the recorder from the complete range of channels that are available to us, and supplement these with the video on demand selection.
What I hope will happen in the near future is:
1. The TV Choice section of VOD will be massively enhanced to include a huge range of archived series. If we have to pay extra for some programmes, so be it.
2. Catch up TV going back one month, perhaps with whole series on there rather than just the last show.
3. The new TIVO boxes enabling us to get a huge selection of new films and TV series via video streaming through the likes of Lovefilm, thus avoiding the Sky stranglehold on such programming.
All of this will set Virgin Media apart from all other TV platforms and we will no longer be subject to the Sky monopoly on 'exclusive' films and programmes.
That means that I can subscribe to Lovefilm (or a similar alternative supplier) and leave the rest to Freeview. This will enable VM to charge a reasonable amount for such use and make a better profit. Win, win.
This is my dream - hopefully it will come true before I die!