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Originally Posted by Stephen
VM are not giving that many credits or discounts out really. What they are giving is relatively small. Especially if you look at revenue and customers all together as well as revenue generated from other services too.
It also won't cost 'pennies' to give customers those channels.
The UKTV channels can easily be gotten on freeview and for a small monthly payment the rest of them. So IMO it's really not a big deal at all.
Its not like Sky Basics where at the time Sky was the only other platform to view them . This time they can keep VM and easily still have access to some or all other channels. I don't believe this matter is as big a deal as some people are making out.
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True, they aren't giving out anywhere near the discounts that were given when the Sky basics left and, apparently, staff were briefed to keep customers at any cost.
VM has previously said that they want to be a service enabler, ie all content would be available on the V6. People don't want the hassle of coming out of the VM ecosystem, even to Freeview (If they have access to it that is) or pay a further £7.99 a month to regain these channels.
I was gobsmacked when VM effectively encouraged customers to have a look at what Freeview had to offer, VM are likely to find that some customers are pleasantly surprised at what they can get without paying them for it!
It's also true that there are many more (and cheaper) ways to access channels than there were in the Sky basics dispute, again, customers may find that one of these services perfectly meets all their needs.
I don't know the actual cost per subscriber for providing the UKTV channels, but was told a couple of years of do ago that paying Sky what they were asking for Sky Atlantic would have worked out at something like 45p a week. This figure is significantly more than the average cost of what it costs to bring a channel to subscribers.
The real costs to VM won't be the discounts given, but the loss of actual and future customers for years to come alonv with increased cartiage costs.