Thread: General Changes to Virgin TV (2021)
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Old 14-01-2021, 13:28   #101
jfman
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Re: Changes to Virgin TV (2021)

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1andrew1 View Post
Streamers are more than just content providers and content aggregators. They generally own the relationship with the customer and the application that enables customers to access that content. It is not usually in an individual streaming company's interests for people to navigate this through a third party interface as it makes it easier to navigate between different providers and people say "I saw this great series on Sky" as oppose to "I saw this great box set on Discovery +"

That is why they want people to stay in their own ecosystems and not to stray to other providers' services. Helping customers find their content more easily works in the confines of their own apps but beyond it can work against them. They don't want customers to see over the walls of their walled gardens.
And while Sky/Virgin do carry third party channels (and always have) they’ve known that the revenue to the third party is also dependent upon the success of Sky/Virgin and that they can reap in the success.

It’s in the streamers interests to break that link longer term and there’s no competitive edge to Sky/Virgin to facilitate third parties retailing directly to their customers. To that end it’s only really worth Sky/Virgin to facilitate this for streamers who have already hit critical mass (e.g. Netflix, Amazon) or are extremely likely to (Disney), or to those that already have widespread presence (on Smart TVs etc).
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