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

[howardmicks]

Originally Posted by nstokes

Anyone spoke to BomberAF to see what happened? He seemed so sure of what was happning, did one of his insiders jump the gun to quick?

That little troll was a skyhd customer anyway,clearly new nothing and as now crawled back under is rock

[ocav]

Originally Posted by coulsontom

That's not true. As channels are wholesale contract is with virgin therefore can cancel. But what date were you informed by virgin espn would be leaving is the key question

Yes but the channel closed at the same time said wholesale agreement was up, all of this is of no choice to virgin. ESPN shut down and was transferred to a new broadcaster, the existing ESPN contract would be worth diddly-squit.

Originally Posted by ChrisB74

I think you could as Virgin Media have had many opportunities to keep ESPN but have failed with poor negotiation with BT - therefore it is completely there fault in making these changes as they could have kept ESPN if agreed to BTs offer.

Who says BT have made an offer?

---------- Post added at 08:43 ---------- Previous post was at 08:40 ----------

Originally Posted by neilo

VM has made the changes Ocav. The reasoning behind their decision not to get BT Sport is utterly irrelevant.

No they haven't. ESPN have shut down. How is that Virgins decision?

The name ESPN has transferred to BT, therefore any existing contract for ESPN doesn't exist. Again it is not in Virgin Medias control as to whether the channel shut down.

[XxDanoxX]

On the plus side, you can all go outside now - none of you have seen any sunlight in days! Take your sunblock - it's going to be a hot one!

Libertys earnings call starts at 9, will dial in and see if they have anything to say on the BT thing.

[neilo]

It doesn't matter if its in their control. Jeesh.

[DaMac]

I hate to say told you so but this is defiantly the reason VM have phoned, mail shotted and emailed me constantly over the last 3 months so they can tie me into a new deal so I can't bugger off the day they became 3rd rate (today).

[neilo]

They do need to get their act together now and sort it out. It's bound to be £12 a month, I guess they just can't agree on who gets what out of that.

[ChrisB74]

Who says BT have made an offer?[COLOR="Silver"]

Well you can't really have negotiations without an offer! Or have Virgin and BT just been sitting in room saying nothing to each other for last x months? BT would have to at least put their starting offer on the table £12 for SD and £15 for HD and discussions would have gone from there?

[eljay]

Originally Posted by neilo

VM has made the changes Ocav. The reasoning behind their decision not to get BT Sport is utterly irrelevant.

BT bought the rights to ESPN therefore VM lost them. All VM would have to show is that the cost of retaining those rights or getting the channels through BT was not in their shareholders interest (a legal requirement) and they could justifiably claim the loss of the rights was outside of their reasonable control.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Dave42

lets see if UPC announce anything today

You hope.

[neilo]

Read J3. There is nothing about it being in or out of their control.

Originally Posted by Top banana

Libertys earnings call starts at 9, will dial in and see if they have anything to say on the BT thing.

Just logged on but its tomorrow at 9am damn!

[howardmicks]

Originally Posted by DaMac

I hate to say told you so but this is defiantly the reason VM have phoned, mail shotted and emailed me constantly over the last 3 months so they can tie me into a new deal so I can't bugger off the day they became 3rd rate (today).

Yer totally agree been saying that for weeks,they were telling customers only yesterday that espn was staying just to get them on new contracts or stay.disgracefull behaviour but I suppose that's how they operate in America we are now yank owned remember

[RonSwanson]

I'm more angry with BT than Virgin over this. IMO we would have had a deal long ago if VM had just done what Sky did & added it as an extra sub for £15 a month like Boxnation. How many people would have subscribed to it though? I'd fall into the category of a mad sports fan but I wouldn't pay it. What VM are trying to do, is engineer a move whereby Virgins product (VIP/XL) offers the best deal possible to customers (better than Sky). This would also boost viewership for BT, problem is, unlike most TV operators they don't seem that worried (right now) about the lack of people watching the channel. They're more concerned with selling broadband & BT vision or whatever it's called. BT's numbers will significantly drop off next year once the people with broadband stop getting it for free. Sooner or later I think BT will come round, how long that will take is anyone's guess though, could be 2 weeks or maybe a year, possibly even longer than that!

[denphone]

This is the latest from someone who has close knowledge on the in's and out's of what is happening at this present moment.

We’re always working to give our customers the best content at the best possible value, so we’re talking to BT about how we could make their BT Sport package available on our Virgin TV service.

As you might have seen, BT Sport begins broadcasting today at 6pm. The BT Sport channels include BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, and ESPN. As ESPN is now part of the BT Sport package, it is no longer available to our customers.

We're still negotiating with BT so until an agreement has been reached these channels will not be distributed on Virgin TV. We’re open to do a deal before or after the start of the Premier League season on 17 August.

We’ll keep you up to date with any developments right here on Home as soon as we can.