General : Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2015)

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by Derekb108

Its probably harder to get ondemand contracts due to the exclusively of sky's deals. Sky's tendencies to make deals exclusively to their platforms and thus makes it harder for other platforms to make deals. And kills other ondemand platforms dead in the water.

And yet BT , Talk Talk , Netflix and Amazon still manage to have compelling enough offers.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

And yet BT , Talk Talk , Netflix and Amazon still manage to have compelling enough offers.

Indeed.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Superblade7

I think you are right Vince. In my opinion I also think VM are now starting to suffer due to lack of content ownership. Sky own much of their content and can afford to advertise half price deals, Sky Atlantic, etc and BT can use BT Sport as a pull to get customers to sign up for their products. Both Sky and BT can also make money from distributing their content online through Now TV and the BT Sport app/website whereas in these days of growing streaming, VM have nothing to offer in terms of content. VM have also lost their big advantage of fibre BB too since the Infinity roll out began.

VM's whole marketing strategy is we've got the fastest broadband and you get 3 tuners on TiVo, free repairs and some other free crap included.

I would hazard a guess that, unless you are a heavy downloader and need the bandwidth, most consumers would be more than happy with a reliable 50Mb connection for general browsing, streaming, etc. Therefore VM need to realise that this continual speed doubling is getting to the stage where very few people will care what the headline speeds are because to the average consumer, they will notice little difference between 100Mb and 300Mb.

So whilst VM will always have a strong offering in the BB market, their TV service is suffering as not only do they lack some content but they are probably the most expensive provider if you choose to take premium content like Sky Sports / Movies.

And regardless of all the above, the number 1 deciding factor for most consumers is price. VM therefore have to be careful not to price themselves out of the market. I notice on the VM website that they've got some pretty decent discounts on their bundles for new customers so I think it will be an interesting few months ahead as Sky and BT are becoming more aggresive and both are / will soon be offering quad-play options too.

I would like to see VM being the home of all streaming services as well as an excellent selection of box sets on their 'On Demand' service. This, with all the most popular linear channels, would provide a very attractive TV service. Add unlimited recordings to the cloud, I would be a very happy bunny.

It's all about the range and quality of programmes available. I still think the VM offer would be irresistible if it offered the widest range of programming that could be found anywhere on one box.

[muppetman11]

Youview is getting closer and closer to that , I've seen numerous rumours suggesting the Now TV player will add the Entertainment channels on Youview soon.

[vincerooney]

Originally Posted by Superblade7

I think you are right Vince. In my opinion I also think VM are now starting to suffer due to lack of content ownership. Sky own much of their content and can afford to advertise half price deals, Sky Atlantic, etc and BT can use BT Sport as a pull to get customers to sign up for their products. Both Sky and BT can also make money from distributing their content online through Now TV and the BT Sport app/website whereas in these days of growing streaming, VM have nothing to offer in terms of content. VM have also lost their big advantage of fibre BB too since the Infinity roll out began.

VM's whole marketing strategy is we've got the fastest broadband and you get 3 tuners on TiVo, free repairs and some other free crap included.

I would hazard a guess that, unless you are a heavy downloader and need the bandwidth, most consumers would be more than happy with a reliable 50Mb connection for general browsing, streaming, etc. Therefore VM need to realise that this continual speed doubling is getting to the stage where very few people will care what the headline speeds are because to the average consumer, they will notice little difference between 100Mb and 300Mb.

So whilst VM will always have a strong offering in the BB market, their TV service is suffering as not only do they lack some content but they are probably the most expensive provider if you choose to take premium content like Sky Sports / Movies.

And regardless of all the above, the number 1 deciding factor for most consumers is price. VM therefore have to be careful not to price themselves out of the market. I notice on the VM website that they've got some pretty decent discounts on their bundles for new customers so I think it will be an interesting few months ahead as Sky and BT are becoming more aggresive and both are / will soon be offering quad-play options too.

Spot on post. Couldn't have summed it up better myself. It certainly is interesting times. If virgin media do double speed again I may call up and just beg them to spend the engineers time on sorting out the fatal utilisation issues in my area. Sometimes I'm hitting a lovely 110mb. During peak times I'm barely hitting 10mb

I wish they'd sort these problems out first before going for the media grabbing news stories of double speed!

I think if people moved about providers there are a ton of savings to be made out there. But I'm too lazy to leave virgin media unless prices went up extremely. The hassle of switching broadband and tv at once would annoy me. I'm a lazy, lazy man

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Superblade7

I think you are right Vince. In my opinion I also think VM are now starting to suffer due to lack of content ownership. Sky own much of their content and can afford to advertise half price deals, Sky Atlantic, etc and BT can use BT Sport as a pull to get customers to sign up for their products. Both Sky and BT can also make money from distributing their content online through Now TV and the BT Sport app/website whereas in these days of growing streaming, VM have nothing to offer in terms of content. VM have also lost their big advantage of fibre BB too since the Infinity roll out began.

VM's whole marketing strategy is we've got the fastest broadband and you get 3 tuners on TiVo, free repairs and some other free crap included.

I would hazard a guess that, unless you are a heavy downloader and need the bandwidth, most consumers would be more than happy with a reliable 50Mb connection for general browsing, streaming, etc. Therefore VM need to realise that this continual speed doubling is getting to the stage where very few people will care what the headline speeds are because to the average consumer, they will notice little difference between 100Mb and 300Mb.

So whilst VM will always have a strong offering in the BB market, their TV service is suffering as not only do they lack some content but they are probably the most expensive provider if you choose to take premium content like Sky Sports / Movies.

And regardless of all the above, the number 1 deciding factor for most consumers is price. VM therefore have to be careful not to price themselves out of the market. I notice on the VM website that they've got some pretty decent discounts on their bundles for new customers so I think it will be an interesting few months ahead as Sky and BT are becoming more aggresive and both are / will soon be offering quad-play options too.

LG have just sold five of their film channels:

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/201503283...#axzz3WAGDRief

Their business model doesn't appear to be content led.

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

And yet BT , Talk Talk , Netflix and Amazon still manage to have compelling enough offers.

I've said it before i'll say it again VM do not like spending money they are money grabbing <insert word here>

[denphone]

Originally Posted by theone2k10

I've said it before i'll say it again VM do not like spending money they are money grabbing <insert word here>

And the others ain't money grabbing then?.

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by denphone

And the others ain't money grabbing then?.

Others invest in content so there's your answer.
Are all out to make profit then yes afterall they are a business and that's what businesses do.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by theone2k10

Others invest in content so there's your answer.
Are all out to make profit then yes afterall they are a business and that's what businesses do.

Virgin are investing a lot too or have you not noticed.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/...edia-3-billion

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vir...5-04-02-917329

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by denphone

Virgin are investing a lot too or have you not noticed.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/...edia-3-billion

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vir...5-04-02-917329

In gimmicks and broadband yes not content whereas you have say for example BT who are investing heavily both in broadband and content.

Guess it's just one of those things you win some you lose some i really hope VM does become the great content provider it once was but it is being left behind by the likes of Sky and BT.

[Anypermitedroute]

He who has content to provide holds more power at the bargaining table.

If YouView does get nowtv that could be a game changer imo

What's the use of a set top box that has all the tuners and gizmo if there is nothing to watch on it

[Superblade7]

Originally Posted by vincerooney

I think if people moved about providers there are a ton of savings to be made out there. But I'm too lazy to leave virgin media unless prices went up extremely. The hassle of switching broadband and tv at once would annoy me. I'm a lazy, lazy man

That's exactly my plan Vince, I've worked out I can move my TV to Sky and get full Sky TV pack and keep VM's 50Mb BB and phone for about £54 + LR per month. I'll be voting with my feet once my current contract is up.

I'd recommend you do the same, you don't have to do them all at once!

[batchain]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

LG have just sold five of their film channels:

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/201503283...#axzz3WAGDRief

Their business model doesn't appear to be content led.

They were forced to sell in order to buy Ziggo. Liberty Global owned the Film1 channels in the Netherlands, while Ziggo owned HBO Netherlands through a joint venture with Time-Warner. The merger would have given them a monopoly in premium movie content so in order for the deal to be approved they had to let one go. They chose to sell the weaker one while guaranteeing its continued carriage on their network.

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by Anypermitedroute

He who has content to provide holds more power at the bargaining table.

If YouView does get nowtv that could be a game changer imo

What's the use of a set top box that has all the tuners and gizmo if there is nothing to watch on it

It's only my opinion but i think VM made a huge mistake selling their channels Bravo, virgin1, living and challenge was there any others?
As i think these were a huge bargaining chip for them.

Also one thing i love about this forum you can have a decent discussion without being called a fanboy