General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2013) Vol. 1.

[Horizon]

Quick profile on John Malone, for those that don't know.

He's the majority shareholder and Chairman of Liberty Media and Liberty Global who now/will own Virgin Media.

He has been involved in UK cable for almost 30 years, buying up a cableco in Croydon. This company latter became Telewest, which he was the majority shareholder of for many years. Telewest and ntl merged 6 years ago and the merged company became virgin media.

His old company TCI (Tele Communications Inc) was the largest cableco in the States for years until it was sold.

He has owned/or still owns shareholdings in many media interests, including viacom, discovery, time warner. He owns Chello Media which has a half interest in the CBS channels, horror ch, extreme sports ch.

He used to own Flextech, the company that owned UK Gold, Trouble, Bravo etc.

Arch rival to Rupert Murdoch, almost took Murdoch's News Corporation company away from him.

Once the vm deal is done, Liberty will be the biggest cableco in the world.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

Now that Liberty are running VM, it would nice is we had some good American channels, and l dont mean CBS etc.

There are some great channels in America, I would love to see the channel, that shows you all the old USA stuff. forget whats its called, but when l was in Florida its showed some great stuff - The Rifeleman, Laredo etc. brilliant stuff.

[Horizon]

...Nick at Nite?? USA??

Some of that stuff is shown on one of the channels on Sky, but the name escapes me at the moment.

[paultrademark]

Originally Posted by Horizon

He has been involved in UK cable for almost 30 years, buying up a cableco in Croydon. This company latter became Telewest, which he was the majority shareholder of for many years

This is interesting, he's went full circle

[Horizon]

....Yep!

What goes around, comes around.

[Media Boy UK]

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

Thanks MB ,but the link is behind a pay wall, could you paraphrase the article for us. Thanks

Story now on my blog

http://mediaboyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2...her-deals.html

---------- Post added at 14:14 ---------- Previous post was at 13:50 ----------

Originally Posted by Horizon

...Nick at Nite?? USA??

Some of that stuff is shown on one of the channels on Sky, but the name escapes me at the moment.

Nick at Nite was set to launch on Sky in the mid 90s (Sky also run an ad in their monthly TV listing book).

But did not launch they launch The Paramount Channel (Now called Comedy Central) an year later.

[DaMac]

Originally Posted by spiderplant

You won't see any changes from the Liberty deal for a long time - it won't even be approved for months. For now it's business as usual.

That was my previous point, VM are not going to be able to make any new deals any time soon except for ones already agreed, or almost agreed, so we will have a period of stagnation till liberty actually take over and get things cooking.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by DaMac

That was my previous point, VM are not going to be able to make any new deals any time soon except for ones already agreed, or almost agreed, so we will have a period of stagnation till liberty actually take over and get things cooking.

That's not what spiderplant said

[Safcftm21]

Originally Posted by andy_m

If they weren't providing a good product they'd be losing customers, failing to make a profit and watching the share price tumble.

VM have been very aggressive with marketing and price deals to new customers, however the proof of the pudding will be retentions when these deals expire. Also will the new company be as willing to give such good discounts when people ring up saying they are not happy with the price rises? In order for VM to be sold for such a large amount of money it had to show it had a large amount of subscribers, how else was it going to do this other than offer good deals? As a sky customer I hope VM stay competitive as without competition Sky could do what it wants. However I have a nasty feeling that all this goodwill that VM have been throwing about with retentions might be a thing of the past.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Safcftm21

however the proof of the pudding will be retentions when these deals expire

Virgin Media's Churn rate was down to 1.1% at the end of 2012 (compared to 1.3% at the end of 2011) which doesn't take account of the improved Collections pricing launched last year.

However I have a nasty feeling that all this goodwill that VM have been throwing about with retentions might be a thing of the past.

Most of the retention deals available in the last year to 18 months haven't been significantly different that the advertised pricing, so I wouldn't expect there to be a mass exodus when the time limited parts of the bundles end.

[Safcftm21]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Virgin Media's Churn rate was down to 1.1% at the end of 2012 (compared to 1.3% at the end of 2011) which doesn't take account of the improved Collections pricing launched last year.

Most of the retention deals available in the last year to 18 months haven't been significantly different that the advertised pricing, so I wouldn't expect there to be a mass exodus when the time limited parts of the bundles end.

It amazing then how many people on here reported getting a better deal after ringing retentions when the last price rise was announced! I also never said anything about a mass exodus just that those better deals might be a thing of the past.

Originally Posted by Safcftm21

VM have been very aggressive with marketing and price deals to new customers, however the proof of the pudding will be retentions when these deals expire. Also will the new company be as willing to give such good discounts when people ring up saying they are not happy with the price rises? In order for VM to be sold for such a large amount of money it had to show it had a large amount of subscribers, how else was it going to do this other than offer good deals? As a sky customer I hope VM stay competitive as without competition Sky could do what it wants. However I have a nasty feeling that all this goodwill that VM have been throwing about with retentions might be a thing of the past.

I think everyone has the same issue. Pick up any newspaper and everyone is advertising this and that free for 6 months. If you look at other businesses they are also offering all sorts at discounted prices - Sky seem to be giving HD free for x months as a retention tool.

As Ben says churn is very low and is the lowest it has been since q4 2003, which I posted elewhere.

The key to this deal is that Liberty see a massive opportunity so I'm sure they will continue to give Sky and others a good run for their money.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Safcftm21

It amazing then how many people on here reported getting a better deal after ringing retentions when the last price rise was announced!

However I wouldn't be surprised if most of that was a 'reset' towards the current Collections pricing, rather than anything like retentions used to give out

Originally Posted by Safcftm21

It amazing then how many people on here reported getting a better deal after ringing retentions when the last price rise was announced! I also never said anything about a mass exodus just that those better deals might be a thing of the past.

If so many people are joining on cheap deals and getting retention deals, how does this happen?

Revenue per customer
31 Dec 2012 - £48.87
30 Sept 2012 - £48.73

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Top banana

I think everyone has the same issue. Pick up any newspaper and everyone is advertising this and that free for 6 months.

Very true. At the moment I'm on 12 months half price with SKY. Noticed Virgin are doing the VIP Collection for £49.50 a month for 6 months then £99 a month + Virgin Phone line (£14.99) a month. That's a very good deal. When my contract expires with SKY I'm likely to return to Virgin if I can get my first 6 months half price. TV, broadband and phone half price 18 months can't be sniffed at. Then if virgin put prices up again, and SKY offer me a good deal to return then I'll simply cancel my contract with Virgin and go back to SKY.

With BT, SKY and Virgin competing for our custom, and being able to cancel your contract if you don't accept a price increase, people can jump from provider to provider very easily. If people don't mind switching TV provider, and keep your eye on the latest offers, you could easily go 2 years without paying the full price for your package.