FFS
UKTV (at least when I last checked five minutes ago) is still half-owned by the same person who owns VM, yet we're going to lose the channels. So much for the "love" between sister companies.
As the Broadcast article goes on to say, this is about the future possibility of a combined on demand service being offered by the BBC, ITV and CH4. They want to keep the on demand rights to themselves.
As I said earlier regarding Disney, we're into a new era. Each broadcaster wants to keep its own content for its own platform and apps.
Note: ITV and others are hoping to buy Discovery's share of UKTV. We should hear about that any day now. That maybe another reason for the reluctance to do a deal with VM