[Rillington]

The lack of new TV channels is not good. TV customers have lost a lot of channels recently, granted mainly due to BSkyB rationalising the channels they bought from VM, but not all (MTV Classic being removed comes to mind) and there's no sign of any new channels appearing to replace them.

Yes HD channels have launched but we are paying more and more each month (my bill went up by more than 5% last month) for fewer and fewer channels.

I know people have made the point about Tivo but I've personally zero interest in Tivo and would never pay for it, either for the box or the monthly subscription charge and would only have it if I was basically forced to have it which may be the case down the line. What's far more important to me is a PDC*-type function for V+ recordings so that if there are late changes or programmes overrun then the V+ box will record all of the programme at the times the programme actually broadcast rather than the times originally stated on the EPG.

I have always seen VM as far better value than Sky due to ESPN and the HD channels both being available at no extra cost but it is now less good value than before due to the 5%+ increase with nothing extra for this £2 more per month.

* For those not in the know, PDC stands for Programme Delivery Control which was a function in the days of analogue broadcasting whereby a signal was sent to video recorders meaning that a PDC-enabled VCR recorded between the times that a programme was actually broadcast rather than the times advertised in listings magazines.