General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2013) Vol. 3.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by Jameseh

So the same as now. Plus they can still say its exclusive to Sky, considering Now TV has a Sky logo on it, they're not hiding the fact its them.

There is a difference. Currently Atlantic is a true USP in that you can only get it with Sky satellite. If a VM customer wants it, they have to have Sky as well. Very very few people do that.


When it is on Now TV, VM customers can get it without having to have Sky satellite as well.


Looks like a ball park figure for HBO content could be £7-10 p/m.

and an extra $10 or $15 for HBO to be packaged in with that service,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_2926926.html

http://www.reelseo.com/hbo-cost-cabl...-hbo-responds/

You can get it now with Sky Go Monthly Ticket, like I said, I doubt it being on Now TV will make any difference.

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by Dave42

we don't get picture interference with rain like you do on dark side

No on cable we get pixalation and loss of channels, whether it's raining heavy or light, whether it is sunny and clear in fact in any weather.

In any given 3 month period on average I have more loss of channels or picture issues on cable than I have in all the years I've had satellite (since mid 80s). Not just at this address but several addresses I've lived at.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by Jameseh

You can get it now with Sky Go Monthly Ticket, like I said, I doubt it being on Now TV will make any difference.

But doesn't Sky go also have a lot of other channels, besides Atlantic, that we can already get via VM?


Mind you, it could be packaged the same way on Now TV, but a separate Atlantic subscription would be better for VM subscribers.

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by MarkC1984

So, how comes SKY and Freeview get Drama automatically and Virgin have to negotiate a deal for it? Thought Drama was a straight swap for Blighty, so makes no sense that Virgin have to settle a deal to carry it.

Different system of working.

Sky don't own the satellites, they like other broadcasters (eg BBC, ITV, UKTV) lease capacity from either Astra or Eutelsat, then use an uplink provider.

The Sky EPG is open to anyone who has a license to broadcast, the broadcaster if they wish then pay the appropriate fee and as long as there are EPG numbers remaining are issued with an EPG number.

If they are a Free To Air (FTA) channel, then that's really the end of it.

If they wish to be part of a Sky subscription, then they accept the Sky rate of so much per subscriber or if they wish negotiate a little more, though there are usually terms in place already for broadcasters who have been on the platform a while who wish to add another channel to to subscription service.

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by BexTech

No on cable we get pixalation and loss of channels, whether it's raining heavy or light, whether it is sunny and clear in fact in any weather.

In any given 3 month period on average I have more loss of channels or picture issues on cable than I have in all the years I've had satellite (since mid 80s). Not just at this address but several addresses I've lived at.

Saw that Virgin had an outage of HD channels throughout the day today. Did anyone find out what that was all about?

Funny you mention the pixalation, I had that issue a number of times when I had VM cable tv yet never had any picture issues at all with the Sky satellite over two addresses, even with all the nasty weather we had a while back.

---------- Post added at 23:13 ---------- Previous post was at 23:09 ----------

Originally Posted by BexTech

If they are a Free To Air (FTA) channel, then that's really the end of it.

There are a couple of Freeview channels that don't appear on Sky's non-subscription freeview offering, any idea why they are different?

[Mad Max]

Funny you mention the pixalation, I had that issue a number of times when I had VM cable tv yet never had any picture issues at all with the Sky satellite over two addresses, even with all the nasty weather we had a while back.

Of course you did..... Anything to undermine Virgin eh QTX!

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

Of course you did..... Anything to undermine Virgin eh QTX!

I'll even it up. Sometimes, even on a perfect summer day, my SKY picture will suffer for pixalation for a second of two. Boxnation gets it the worst along with SKY Sports HD.

Would a pigeon landing on your satellite dish cause this? The old boy at the end of my road has racing pigeons. He lets them out a few times a week. There is one or two that like to land on my dish and TV aerial.

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

Of course you did..... Anything to undermine Virgin eh QTX!

Are you suggesting that I told a lie about the pixelation? It happened.

The truth seems to hurt quite bad to those in live with the pixel provider

---------- Post added at 23:53 ---------- Previous post was at 23:50 ----------

Originally Posted by Chad

Would a pigeon landing on your satellite dish cause this? The old boy at the end of my road has racing pigeons. He lets them out a few times a week. There is one or two that like to land on my dish and TV aerial.

What are you signal levels like normally? Wondering if a pigeon could do this no matter if you had a top signal.

I get ducks fly past me quite regular and they dont interfere. Sure its the same three ducks everytime too!

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by Qtx

There are a couple of Freeview channels that don't appear on Sky's non-subscription freeview offering, any idea why they are different?

That's just down to the broadcaster.

With Freesat / FTA channels they are receivable in many countries, depending on which satellite they are on.

[Mad Max]

The truth seems to hurt quite bad to those in live with the pixel provider

You see, that statement alone sums your comments up, all you ever do is have a dig here, and a dig there, at all things Virgin! Ok you have had both services, and you prefer Sky, thats fine, but that doesn't mean that other Virgin users have problems the same as you maybe experienced, i've had the odd problem here and there, and i suspect most people do not enjoy a perfect service from any of the providers, but you seem to have this fixation that Virgin delivers a poor service to everyone, which clearly isn't the case.

[Qtx]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

blah blah blah.

You questioned the fact I had issues with the pixelation for no reason other than your bias towards me. I know people get a good service with all different providers, so not sure what you are on about apart from not liking the fact a few of us have said we don't get signal problems on Sky after the VM channel loses today.

Attack the argument, not the poster.

---------- Post added at 00:48 ---------- Previous post was at 00:48 ----------

Originally Posted by BexTech

That's just down to the broadcaster.

With Freesat / FTA channels they are receivable in many countries, depending on which satellite they are on.

Makes sense, cheers!

[Superblade7]

Earlier this year when we had heavy snow, I had great service throughout whereas my neighbour lost her Sky signal a couple of time due to both the volume of snow and the fact that some settled on her dish and blocked the signal to the LNB.

When I was with Sky myself years ago, I always used to lose signal in heavy rain and thunderstorms. Once a thunderstorm also screwed my Sky STB and had to cough up £60 for an engineer to replace it.

Since I've been with VM, I rarely lose signal but when I do it's only usually a short outage or once when I had regular pixelation, they sent an engineer out (for free) who adjusted the signals at the cab and never had an issue since.

Both services have their pros and cons but I don't think either are infallible.

[Mad Max]

You questioned the fact I had issues with the pixelation for no reason other than your bias towards me. I know people get a good service with all different providers, so not sure what you are on about apart from not liking the fact a few of us have said we don't get signal problems on Sky after the VM channel loses today.

Attack the argument, not the poster.

I'm not attacking you, read your posts, you continually attack Virgin, i dont have issues with Virgin, but i get the feeling that you don't believe that, and i didnt question the fact that you had issues, read the post again, i said "that doesn't mean that other Virgin users have problems the same as you maybe experienced" and i do believe you when you stated that, it's just reading your posts, they always seem negative towards Virgin when the opposite is the case for many Virgin users.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Maybe we will get up on Monday and see Drama broadcasting on Virgin Media after all we did see Yesterday +1 and Eden +1 being axe to make way for Watch and Watch +1 to launch and even that was not confirmed until Watch launch day.

GOLD +1 may move to Channel 199.

I don't understand why UKTV have made a big thing about Drama only being on Freeview. As pointed out elsewhere, they don't need to ask Sky for permission to broadcast on satellite. The only problem would be getting a SD EPG slot, but closing Blighty resolves that.

Perhaps, like some other freeview channels, it will be subscription on satellite and they mean that they have had to negotiate with Sky about that.

Originally Posted by jj20x

Sky didn't get it automatically, a licence has been agreed according to Drama's Twitter site, it will launch on Sky on the 8th, channel numbers to be finalised. It also states they have nothing to announce regarding Virgin at the moment.

Maybe VM are waiting until the existing carriage agreement with UKTV is due for renewal.

It's possible that they will wait until the existing carriage agreement expires, but I'd have thought that they would either remove another channel eg as Channel 4 did by removing More4+1 when Channel 4+1 started, or do a straight swap like when heat replaced Q.