General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2013) Vol. 2.

[howardmicks]

Should be included in the £7 sky HD premium me thinks

[Dave42]

Originally Posted by howardmicks

Should be included in the £7 sky HD premium me thinks

it a basic channel though Howard mate

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Dave42

it a basic channel though Howard mate

You would think so but my hunch is Sky class it as a premium channel.

[Dave42]

Originally Posted by denphone

You would think so but my hunch is Sky class it as a premium channel.

they don't though Den as it in a sky basic pack so they class it as a basic surely

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Dave42

they don't though Den as it in a sky basic pack so they class it as a basic surely

To their own customers they will put it in the basic package but it seems that when its comes to their rivals they see it quite differently in my humble opinion....

[howardmicks]

If they put it in HD pack it could maybe increase premium take up and could still advertise it on sky as only available in a basic pack

[Aguero9320]

Originally Posted by toady

Multi Room Streaming TIVO to TIVO

Thanks!

[paultrademark]

Originally Posted by ocav

But the price? If it's anywhere near the price of the Sky Movies Monthly Pass (which is cheaper than VM and Sky if you don't have sports) then you may aswell get a Sky Go Monthly Pass for £15 includes more channels than just the Sky Basics

Isn't it pretty much just Sky Basics with Freeview channels for £15, around 40 channels?

Not really sure about the pricing and channels on Sky Go Monthly Ticket and Now TV.. to be honest am not sure why Sky have 2 very similar services for people without subscriptions.

[harry_hitch]

Originally Posted by Dave42

£20 a month for a minority channel no way should that happen even on sky it a basic channel not a premium one and why should VM customers be penalised for a sky channel that don't get 10% of there customers watching it

Seriously?! You asked me how VM can get the channel, and I offer my suggestion.
It is clearly not a "basic" channel.
If you read my post properly you will see that I used the term "ridiculously high price" which £20 clearly is. My point for the £20 charge is that Sky see SA as a way of retaining/gaining subscriptions. If people do not wish to deal directly with Sky, then Sky could get roughly the same amount of money from VM customers as they would from new subscribers.
If it is such a "basic" channel why does no-one else have it? It is clearly a "basic" channel for Sky customers and a premium channel for non-Sky subscribers and as such no other suppliers can afford it.

---------- Post added at 22:23 ---------- Previous post was at 22:21 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

To their own customers they will put it in the basic package but it seems that when its comes to their rivals they see it quite differently in my humble opinion....

No need to be humble with that opinion Den, it is quite clearly a premium channel to non-Sky subscribers.

[Chad]

So what would be a reasonable price for Virgin to pay SKY for SKY Atlantic?

In 2008 Virgin and SKY agreed a new carriage of "basic" channels covering Sky1, Sky2, Sky3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2. That is a total of 9 channels. The deal, according to The Guardian, cost Virgin up to £38 million per year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...ss?INTCMP=SRCH

http://mediacentre.virginmedia.com/S...ments-117.aspx

So under that carriage deal Virgin where paying roughly up to £4.2 million per channel annually. I however suspect that would not have been the exact rate per channel. SKY 1 probably cost more than SKY Real Lives 2 annually for example. Another thing to remember is none of these channels where in HD and none of the content was available on demand or catch up. The deal was also agreed 6 years ago when the VIP package was only £85 per month compared to the £114 per month it is now. That is a 34% increase. We have seen significant inflation in the TV market accross the board regardless of TV provider. The Premiership football rights are getting out of control.

SKY signed a 5 year deal with HBO costing a total of £150m, or £30m per year. This of course doesn't include the rights to other shows SKY pick up from Showtime, FOX etc... In terms of their deal with HBO, home grown content and other material SKY must be spending about £40m annually on content and running the channel give or take a few million.

If Virgin and SKY agreed roughly up to £4.2 million annually for the likes of SKY 3 and SKY News 6 years ago, what would a realistic price be for SKY Atlantic now? If Virgin want SKY Atlantic, SKY Atlantic HD, SKY Atlantic on demand, SKY Atlantic catch up and access via Virgin Anywhere it's going to be a high price surely. Once you take inflation into consideration and SKY's running costs for the channel, and even an exclusive deal to keep it off BT, it would have to be between £8 million and £11 million annually?

SKY might be asking for even more. If SKY are investing potentially £40 million into the channel each year, they might not want to give another provider like Virgin or BT access cheaply. When SKY and Virgin agreed the new carriage deal for SKY basics channels in 2008, they also agreed a new deal for Virgins channels being Living, Living 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Trouble, Challenge and Virgin 1. Both new carriage deals cost both companies virtually the same. Both brought their basic channels to the table and agreed a deal that left neither really better or worse off financially. Both pretty much got out what they put in. Virgin now have nothing to bring to the table.

[Dave42]

Originally Posted by howardmicks

If they put it in HD pack it could maybe increase premium take up and could still advertise it on sky as only available in a basic pack

but Howard you got to take sports or movie pack to get premium HD that would mean only sports of movie fans could ever watch it

---------- Post added at 22:47 ---------- Previous post was at 22:42 ----------

[QUOTE=harry_hitch;35559937]Seriously?! You asked me how VM can get the channel, and I offer my suggestion.
It is clearly not a "basic" channel.
If you read my post properly you will see that I used the term "ridiculously high price" which £20 clearly is. My point for the £20 charge is that Sky see SA as a way of retaining/gaining subscriptions. If people do not wish to deal directly with Sky, then Sky could get roughly the same amount of money from VM customers as they would from new subscribers.
If it is such a "basic" channel why does no-one else have it? It is clearly a "basic" channel for Sky customers and a premium channel for non-Sky subscribers and as such no other suppliers can afford it.[COLOR="Silver"]

I do see your point Harry but £20 a month would be a mega rip off IMHO not sure many would pay that

[muppetman11]

It's simply what makes sense from a commercial point of view for both companies , Sky see the channel as a driver for subscriptions and as such probably want a good enough offer to make it worth while in losing exclusivity , VM on the other hand want to add the channel at a reasonable rate what they feel represents true value for money for its tv subscribers and personally I don't blame there stance I'm sure many would complain if it was added and subs increased more than the norm.

[ocav]

Originally Posted by paultrademark

Isn't it pretty much just Sky Basics with Freeview channels for £15, around 40 channels?

Not really sure about the pricing and channels on Sky Go Monthly Ticket and Now TV.. to be honest am not sure why Sky have 2 very similar services for people without subscriptions.

Sky Go includes Sky1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky News, Sky Sports News, (Sports and Movies for Subs only), Nat Geographic, GOLD, Eden, History, British Eurosport, Crime and Investigation, ESPN (Sky Subs with ESPN Only), Channel 4, E4, More4, Bio, Disney, Disney XD, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Boomerang, Sky Arts 1&2, FOX and MTV.

Prices currently for non sky subscribers;

Entertainment Only - £15.00 (£13.00 extra if you want ESPN)
Entertainment and Movies - £32.00 (£13.00 extra for ESPN)
Entertainment and Sport - £35.00 (£10 for ESPN)
Entertainment + Sport + Movies - £40.00 (£10 for ESPN)

The idea of Now TV is that you can get Movies on its own without the need for an entertainment subscription (to challenge Netflix & LoveFilm).

Sky Sports Day Pass (£9.99 on Now TV) is to target people who want to watch only 1 sports game, and nothing else.

Now TV is also to create a non Sky branded platform which can appeal to those who don't do their research and don't want to pay Murdoch a penny.

[andy_m]

It's quite heavily marketed as Now TV powered by Sky. I don't think they're trying to disassociate themselves at all.

[nialli]

If you're tempted by Sky Go, remember it doesn't output through HDMI from iPads or mobiles. And the picture quality is pretty ropey SD. And you can't record.