[1andrew1]

I agree with some of your points but think you have got the wrong end of the stick on others.

Originally Posted by Horizon

We have all Sky channels, then a "clarification" in the next sentence...

He obviously should have said we have all the Sky premium channels. I think the paper should have corrected this by putting premium in the sentence in square brackets to show he did not say it. I guess we don't know where the blame lies on this - if VM were asked to sign off on the quotes then they are to blame, if they did not then the Daily Mail is to blame. (So neither agree nor disagree with you on this point.)

Originally Posted by Horizon

Liberty are creating one European operation, yet are still saying things will be seperate on the brand side. Perhaps they will be, but if they integrate all other operations, why keep different names?

Tom Mockridge explains why in the article. The relevant quote is

This is Money 'It doesn’t do enough to change from existing brands,’ he says. ‘In Germany we have Unity and KBW reflecting the history of those systems. Having some sort of central brand trying to tell someone in Romania and someone in Birmingham and someone in Cork, to get the same message, we don’t think that works.'

Originally Posted by Horizon

By the way, unless I'm getting my horizontals and verticals confused, it's not called horizontal consolidation, but vertical integration. But again, perhaps that's another slight of hand for the dim witted journalist that interviewed him.

The horizontal consolidation refers to the consolidation of European cable firms by Liberty Global. However, I'm sure many people will have read the article in the same way that you have as it follows on from the sentences about All3Media and not the European cable companies! If you read it again comparing US cable companies and their scale v the situation in Europe it makes sense.

This is Money When Malone bought Virgin, the ambitions for joining up the dots in Europe were left unclear. Mockridge makes no secret of where Liberty, with its deep pockets, is heading. ‘How do we get the horizontal consolidation that our American colleagues have by default, because they are a single country with 300 million people?’

Originally Posted by Horizon

If Mockbridge really believes that having the Big Kahuna pack in VM's armoury is the same as a huge vertically integrated company like Disney or Time Warner, he really is deluded. No wonder Murdoch had him shipped off to run Sky Italia, he could do less damage there. Perhaps he's missing the sun?

If you re-read the poorly-edited article you will see that:
- The integration talked about is horizontal integration in Europe not vertical integration with content.
- The quote about Big Kahuna being the solution to European integration is not Tom Mockridge's but the journalist's. He acknowledges that Tom Mockridge's question about getting scale is a rhetorical one.
- Your concluding assumptions about Mockridge don't match the facts. He was well respected, Sky Italia was a tough assignment due to the political situation in the country but he navigated it very well. He was also brought back to the UK to trouble shoot News International in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.