Quote:
Originally Posted by WillPS
You're punishing the customer for solving logistic problems that were not of their making and they have so far seen no improvement as a result of having been solved.
From a customers point of view:
Sky has every channel available
Virgin has quite a few crucial gaps
Sky are rolling out an On Demand service with considerable new content regularly
Virgin's offer seems, frankly, stagnant
You've absolutely no right to be congratulated for rolling out Digital services, this is way overdue.
Rollout of NAGRA3 has absolutely no benefit to the customer.
Merging the headends has absolutely no benefit to the customer.
The pace of change at VM is glacial. Nevermind TiVo (great for anybody who wants to pay for equipment they don't own), what about all the customers who are stuck with Scientific Atlanta V+ boxes which only get slower. When are they going to be upgraded? This year? Unlikely!
These are customers who have patiently waited for 4 years+ for software updates which have never come. Whenever I go home and have to face using my parent's V+ over my Sky+ it's a bloody nightmare - the EPG (running at a speed comparable to ONdigital in 1998) and recording capacity are beyond a joke.
The party line that the company isn't investing in linear channels like Sky Atlantic but is continuing to invest in VoD is frankly tosh - the VoD lineup has less that I want to watch everytime I confront it, and I'm not the fussiest of viewers.
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VM are IMO moving in the right direction but I agree in some areas at a slow pace. The reason being they are not bursting at the seems with cash. If they tried to do everything at once they would just go bust. If you look at what they have done since they became Virgin Media they have upgraded their whole network and now are bringing in a much needed improved software. At the end of the day though it is all down to money and it is impossible for them to move at the pace some would like or compete with Sky in the business of channel ownership because they just don't have Sky's cash.
BTW Your mention of anytime+ isn't the best one to make your argument. It has arrived years after cable had VOD, seven months after launch you still need to have Sky's own broadband and an HD box so only a minority of customers can use it. Also I think I am right in saying it has no HD and no catch up from the main channels. If that is the best a company can do who is bursting with funds then I think it gives some idea of why VM aren't moving as fast as some would like.