General : Coming Soon to Virgin Media TV (2016) Vol 2

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Media Boy

We are thinking about Virgin Media buying TruTV (UK) and rebrand as Virgin1 and add some shows made by All3Media.

Perhaps, but when we talk about VM we have to think in the wider context which you partly did by mentioning All3Media.

I don't see VM launching services in isolation, but I do see Liberty, either or both of the Liberty companies, launching services.

We need to keep an eye on what John Malone is doing (see VM/Liberty/John Malone) news thread for any updates. But I think should Malone want to launch services he'll do it across his entire empire both European cable cos and now his merged US cable co too.

As you say, there is All3Media content which he controls, Discovery, Eurosport, F1, Starz and now has a significant investment in Lionsgate. He's got the content and he's got the means to distribute it and I think 2017 will be the year when we may see him linking up his various assets.

So perhaps not Virgin 1 (been there, done that) but a "Liberty" streaming service available to all his US and European customers.

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by jj20x

I can't really see why there would be any bidders chasing a failed / failing channel. It would probably be better to start afresh than to try and turn around a failing channel.

Will just be for the slot one feels, Universal, warner and liberty global are three brands we have seen allegedly interesting.
Liberty global can be struck of the list we feel as they are going more in the on demand direction.
Which would leave Universal and Warner as the two leaders for the slot.
Before certain posters accuse me of posting cobblers this is only info we have had given to us and is being treated as rumours for now.

---------- Post added at 20:43 ---------- Previous post was at 20:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Media Boy

We was thinking Virgin Media along the line of them buying UTV Ireland from ITV this year.

If true it cant be for TruTV Sky EPG Slots only Universal own Channels are higher than TruTV:

-Syfy HD*
-Universal Channel HD*
-E! +1
-E! HD*

*Only for Sky SD Viewers.

Or they may launch "13th Street" brand in the UK and Ireland.

13th street isn't a bad call tbh.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by theone2k10

Will just be for the slot one feels, Universal, warner and liberty global are three brands we have seen allegedly interesting.
Liberty global can be struck of the list we feel as they are going more in the on demand direction.
Which would leave Universal and Warner as the two leaders for the slot.
Before certain posters accuse me of posting cobblers this is only info we have had given to us and is being treated as rumours for now.

13th street isn't a bad call tbh.

Turner and Warner are both owned by TimeWarner so you think Warner would get first refusal on the EPG capacity if it wanted it.

[Aguero9320]

Firstly, to everyone. Referring to what Andrew said about Warner, I think TimeWarner may try to purchase TruTV and relaunch Warner TV but as a linear FTA channel and replace TruTV +1 with Warner TV +1 (also FTA) or a pay-TV exclusive Warner TV HD.

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Turner and Warner are both owned by TimeWarner so you think Warner would get first refusal on the EPG capacity if it wanted it.

Which would therefore leave Universal in pole position if Warner declined based on the rumour we have.
Mb might be onto something though with 13th street but only time will tell.

Originally Posted by Media Boy

Maybe they just want TruTV EPG Slots on both Freeview and Sky.

An buyer may need to sign new deal with Virgin Media.

The positions of TruTV's EPG slots aren't particularly attractive on any platform.

On Freeview, to meet Digital UK requirements, any new channel would probably have to keep the damaged TruTV brand name for quite some time in order to hold onto a not very attractive EPG location (as we have seen with the transition of MovieMix from The Big Deal to the Sony Movie Channel.)

On Sky, the owners of a new channel could just do the usual trick of buying EPG slots from Information TV. That way, they could get 191 and 212 rather than TruTv's 198/271

---------- Post added at 01:34 ---------- Previous post was at 01:25 ----------

Originally Posted by theone2k10

Will just be for the slot one feels, Universal, warner and liberty global are three brands we have seen allegedly interesting.
Liberty global can be struck of the list we feel as they are going more in the on demand direction.

As I said to MB, the EPG locations aren't particularly attractive and there's probably better ways of obtaining the platform capacity than being connected with a damaged brand.

To be honest the fact that Turner has been reported as seeing the brand as a failure in the UK doesn't make it attractive to bidders, advertisers or viewers. Not a great move letting this sort information leak into the public domain.

---------- Post added at 01:48 ---------- Previous post was at 01:34 ----------

everyone.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I think it was a deliberate leak to The Daily Telegraph. They were the first to report that VM had hired David Bouchier as Chief Digital Entertainment Officer and then had a follow-up interview with him when he advised the V6 would be launched at the end of the year.

Wow, I knew that TalkTalk had had problems, but not to the extent of losing 3/5 of its value and going from a market share of 23% to 13% in 18 months

It wouldn't surprise me if the shabby way that VM have started to treat their customers has had a similar effect on VM. Perhaps as yet unreleased performance figures have prompted them to delve into the budget market??

Why do you think that the leak was deliberate? I never thought of that; it may well have been a stunt pulled for free advertising.

[denphone]

Sorry Richard but Virgins reputation along with Skys were top of the pops in the latest Satisfaction study done by Ofcom.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php...ion-study.html

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Wow, I knew that TalkTalk had had problems, but not to the extent of losing 3/5 of its value and going from a market share of 23% to 13% in 18 months

It wouldn't surprise me if the shabby way that VM have started to treat their customers has had a similar effect on VM. Perhaps as yet unreleased performance figures have prompted them to delve into the budget market??

Why do you think that the leak was deliberate? I never thought of that; it may well have been a stunt pulled for free advertising.

In fairness, TalkTalk's share price was 137.50p on 23/12/11 and is now 167.60 but it did peak at 403.00 on 22/05/15.
It's hard selling on price if you don't have a high market share so this is an issue for TalkTalk.
I suspect it was a leak to investors or came out from that area of the company, it's not information aimed at consumers. The logic behind it makes sense to me - get as many people using your infrastructure as possible as the costs are largely fixed. Plus the economic outlook from 2017 looks uncertain so it makes sense for VM to cover its options by having a budget brand, in the same way that BT (Plusnet) and Sky (NowTV) do.
And I wouldn't extrapolate forum experiences to indicate a more general decline in VM's standards. Sometimes this can give a useful advanced early warning to companies but more often than not is just unrepresentative of the bigger picture.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Wow, I knew that TalkTalk had had problems, but not to the extent of losing 3/5 of its value and going from a market share of 23% to 13% in 18 months

It wouldn't surprise me if the shabby way that VM have started to treat their customers has had a similar effect on VM. Perhaps as yet unreleased performance figures have prompted them to delve into the budget market??

Why do you think that the leak was deliberate? I never thought of that; it may well have been a stunt pulled for free advertising.

Virgin Media do not treat their customers shabbily at all. I've been signed up to various cable companies over the years - Telecential, ComTel, ntl and now Virgin Media and whenever I have had occasion to speak with Customer Services I have been listened to and any problems or adjustments to my services have been dealt with courteously and efficiently. In fact, Virgin Media are the best of them all.

I won't speculate as to why some of you are experiencing problems with Customer Services, although I do know that some are full of themselves and some others are downright rude. People need to understand that being rude and unreasonable is not going to endear you to anybody.

As Denphone says, Ofcom has reported high satisfaction levels from VM customers, so your assumptions are simply wrong, I'm afraid.

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Virgin Media do not treat their customers shabbily at all. I've been signed up to various cable companies over the years - Telecential, ComTel, ntl and now Virgin Media and whenever I have had occasion to speak with Customer Services I have been listened to and any problems or adjustments to my services have been dealt with courteously and efficiently. In fact, Virgin Media are the best of them all.

I won't speculate as to why some of you are experiencing problems with Customer Services, although I do know that some are full of themselves and some others are downright rude. People need to understand that being rude and unreasonable is not going to endear you to anybody.

As Denphone says, Ofcom has reported high satisfaction levels from VM customers, so your assumptions are simply wrong, I'm afraid.

BIB Really? that's not the experience i've had even after a court order telling them to stop issuing ghost bills to me (bills i do not owe) they still continued to bombard me with threatening letters and calls, they even got a debt collection agency invoved completely messing up my credit file.
I hope i was just unlucky but i doubt i'm the only one VM have treated like this.
On the otherhand along with SKY VM do indeed have a high satisfaction rate in various surveys and ofcom reports.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Virgin Media do not treat their customers shabbily at all. I've been signed up to various cable companies over the years - Telecential, ComTel, ntl and now Virgin Media and whenever I have had occasion to speak with Customer Services I have been listened to and any problems or adjustments to my services have been dealt with courteously and efficiently. In fact, Virgin Media are the best of them all.

I won't speculate as to why some of you are experiencing problems with Customer Services, although I do know that some are full of themselves and some others are downright rude. People need to understand that being rude and unreasonable is not going to endear you to anybody.

As Denphone says, Ofcom has reported high satisfaction levels from VM customers, so your assumptions are simply wrong, I'm afraid.

I agree that people should try to remain polite, but, either way, staff should behave in a professional manner and remain polite at all times.

The figures i'm referring to relate to churn after their antics in 2016 and not any of the satisfaction surveys.

These are meaningless anyway, unless they are truly independent with their skewed questions etc.

The survey is undertaken by OFCOM

[1andrew1]

Three myths on this thread that need nailing:
1. Because one person has had great/terrible service, this is not necessarily representative of the company as a whole. Theone2k10 - despite his terrible experience - has been gracious enough to acknowledge this.
2. If you've had a bad experience with a company, learning that 95% of people have had a great experience doesn't make it any better for you. Some people may be tempted to ask Why am I unlucky?
3. Just because the independent survey results don't match people's own experiences doesn't mean that the survey has skewed questions. These are professionally-devised surveys with good sample sizes.

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Three myths on this thread that need nailing:
1. Because one person has had great/terrible service, this is not necessarily representative of the company as a whole. Theone2k10 - despite his terrible experience - has been gracious enough to acknowledge this.
2. If you've had a bad experience with a company, learning that 95% of people have had a great experience doesn't make it any better for you. Some people may be tempted to ask Why am I unlucky?
3. Just because the independent survey results don't match people's own experiences doesn't mean that the survey has skewed questions. These are professionally-devised surveys with good sample sizes.

Hit the nail on the head there mate loads complain about BT but i have found their customer service superb and very helpful.
I think it's a case of luck of the draw really for example when i rejoined SKY i had a sky store issue the person i spoke to was superb and did everything possible to get the issue resolved quickly for me, turned out my account hadn't been updated we both chuckled at it.
Then when i decided SKY Cinema really wasn't worth it for i rang up to downgrade and got fed lies such as "you'll lose your offers" to which i politely pointed out that the movies were actually added at a later date so my offers would actually stand, he grumbled but still went to double check, they tried some scare tactics but realised i was't biting when i simply responded "if my offers are going can you remove sky sports, box sets too please" it suddenly changed to "oh you are correct your offers do still stand if you remove sky cinema" i quietly smiled to myself.
I have had very bad experience with VM but i always found their retentions team to be polite and helpful, pity their ceo and billing teams couldn't give two tosses though.