Acquisition by Sky of Virgin Media Television

[shugg mcglummfer]

According to a press release today, "British Sky Broadcasting (Sky; LSE:BSY) and Virgin Media (NASDAQ:VMED)(LSE:VMED) today announced that they have reached agreement for the acquisition by Sky of Virgin Media Television (VMtv)."

http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/p...556&highlight=

I've spent years trying to avoid giving direct money to Rupert Murdoch and now the only way to do this will be to cancel the cable tv.



Edit Rob: Thread title changed to remove "Disaster" as that seems inappropriate for what has become Cable Forum's main discussion on this significant change, which some will welcome and others will have reservations.

[BenMcr]

However this means Virgin WILL get Sky 1 HD, all Sky Sport and Movie channels in HD and the 'Red Button'

[Stephen]

Its not a disaster at all, its a very good thing, by selling them VMTV we have agreed a good deal and we get access to the Sky Sports and Movies in HD as well as red button interactive features and sky 1 HD.

[BenMcr]

Official Press release is here http://bit.ly/cYjwfM

[VMboy]

Good News for Virgin Media customers!

[ShadowTD]

Hmmm. I still think that ownership of the most popular non-Murdoch multi-channel channel 'Living' was worth more to VM to hang on to as a bargaining chip that whatever cash they may get for the sale. Ho hum. But more HD and RED BUTTON after all these years!

[Digital Fanatic]

Looks like a good deal for both VM and Sky

[Mad Bee]

Looks like I'm going to be adding Sky Sports to my package now that the red button is going to be available to us.

[vineetpatel]

Any idea what the timeframe for this might be? i.e. when will virgin customers be able to get the basic HD channels??

[Chartwell]

This is great news.

Sky 1 HD, Sky Sports HD, Sky Sports red button access, Sky Movies HD.

Far from a disaster for VM, Sky are buying up channels no one watches and in return giving Virgin their HD and interactive services.

[punky]

Virgin are the real winners here. They get the extra HD channels and Sky paid £160m for a load of rubbish that noone watches anyway. The only exception being Bravo.

Originally Posted by shugg mcglummfer

I've spent years trying to avoid giving direct money to Rupert Murdoch and now the only way to do this will be to cancel the cable tv.

How so? You don't pay BSkyB directly for the Sky-owned channels featured on VM at the moment, and you won't do after this deal is done. You will continue to pay your subs to VM and they will in turn pay content providers for the channels they make available on their cables.

The NTL half of VM's management has never really liked being a content provider - they always wanted to focus on the delivery platform. They have now got what they wanted, so let's see if they are right.

This could be a good deal, if it ensures that the full range of subscription TV services are always available on cable. On the other hand if VM's negotiators have screwed up (and it wouldn't be the first time), this could one day torpedo cable TV permanently. If there's ever another tiff between the two companies it won't just be the 'Sky Basics' that get pulled off the cable. Let's hope they've sorted out the terms and conditions of this deal very, very carefully.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by vineetpatel

Any idea what the timeframe for this might be? i.e. when will virgin customers be able to get the basic HD channels??

Not yet. You'll be able to sign up to be notified when there is a confirmed date - I'll post the link as soon as it's live

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Official Press release is here http://bit.ly/cYjwfM

Ben do you know if it's "just" Sky Sports 1 and 2 HD or all 4 Sports HD channels??

Ta

[BenMcr]

EDIT: scratch that - it's just 1 and 2.