Thread: General Virgin Media & UKTV+ITV Channels
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Old 28-07-2018, 14:33   #518
OLD BOY
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Re: Virgin Media & UKTV+ITV Channels
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter View Post
They have dug themselves into a hole and giving in to ITV was the least worse option, but this will have the effect of them now being viewed as an easy target to increase carriage costs.

The fact that ITV got nowhere after 18 months of negotiations and then, within 24 hours of giving VM an ultimatum after their platform had been weakened, VM agree a deal acceptable to them speaks for itself. Other channel operators will now be queuing up to inflate their carriage costs.

I have previously covered why the Sky basics issue was a whole different ball game on more than one occasion.
You would be saying that other providers will be queuing up to inflate their carriage costs had Virgin given into UKTV! I don't see how you make out that by letting UKTV go, this would embolden channel operators! On the contrary, it shows that VM believe that no deal is better than a bad deal.

Sky was a different ball game, because it was a more important issue than the UKTV issue is. This will blow over, and we will get more channels over the coming months to make up for the loss.

---------- Post added at 14:23 ---------- Previous post was at 14:20 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter View Post
As I said before, an already weakened platform could not not afford to also lose the ITV channels. It's pretty obvious that VM gave in to the requirements of ITV and this will not have gone unnoticed by the other channel providers.
How do you know the timing was not coincidental? This spat with ITV has been going on for a year now. It should not escape your notice that on demand provision was an important part of the dispute with UKTV. However, a deal with ITV on this has been achieved. This will improve our on demand content considerably.

---------- Post added at 14:28 ---------- Previous post was at 14:23 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter View Post
Exactly. VM tried to get UKTV to accept less and it's always worth trying to get suppliers to provide things for less.

It didn't work, so VM thought that they'd push the issue and make the spat public. It's been handled appallingly and blown up in their face.
Customer discontent from a minority. I think Virgin would have expected that. The number of people viewing these channels on their V6 boxes will have been known to Virgin Media, so they knew there would be a limit to the number of cancellations that would occur.

Such a fuss for channels showing almost endless repeats.

---------- Post added at 14:33 ---------- Previous post was at 14:28 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter View Post
Do you really think that VM could have afforded to let the ITV channels go from from the service at this particular time?

Why on Earth would ITV have wanted to drag it out, it had been dragged out for 18 months already. The argument that their content was more compelling than ever is surely a reason to encourage VM to play ball and it obviously worked.
They were already virtually ready to sign a deal, Richard. Anyway, this is good news, not bad.
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