Liberty Global 2015 Results - 16 Feb

[Arthurgray50@blu]

The firm said the price rise “was implemented to recoup a portion of our investment in BT Sport Europe”. Virgin added the channel, which has exclusive rights to the Champions and Europa leagues, to its top-tier XL channel pack alongside a £3 per month price hike.

This was taken from VM press release on Liberty. Its a damn disgrace, that VM were saying that BT Sport was FREE.

Yet again VM have conned the customer

[denphone]

Nothing is ever free even when they say it is free Arthur..

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

The firm said the price rise “was implemented to recoup a portion of our investment in BT Sport Europe”. Virgin added the channel, which has exclusive rights to the Champions and Europa leagues, to its top-tier XL channel pack alongside a £3 per month price hike.

This was taken from VM press release on Liberty. Its a damn disgrace, that VM were saying that BT Sport was FREE.

Yet again VM have conned the customer

Make up your mind, Arthur...

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...t#post35789991

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I am quite happy with the £3.00 increase, as l am football mad. And yes, Spurs are in Europe.

BUT, what annoys me is that there are channels that we want, but VM wont give us. YET, they are quite happy to increase prices.

Come Sept, when Sky put there prices up - what is VM going to do ?

[Stephen]

Not really its still cheaper than paying extra for it on Sky

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Not really its still cheaper than paying extra for it on Sky

Yep, why go to Sky for BT sport when VM can force non-sports watching XLTV suckers to pay for your premium sports channel!

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Not really its still cheaper than paying extra for it on Sky

But that's not the point because as PB said its unfair on the many who have no interest in it.

[Stephen]

I don't really watch it very often but will sometimes watch a game.

I am just happy it is there if I want it and don't have to pay extra for it.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Make up your mind, Arthur...

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/11...t#post35789991

PMSL another day another bout of BS

[Chad]

Originally Posted by denphone

Is Virgin Media just managing decline in its TV customer base?.

http://www.seenit.co.uk/virgin-media...aging-decline/

No bloody way! That's the exact point I was making last night and they've used the same link. Either it's coincidence or Seen It are influenced by postings on Cable Forum

[Kushan]

I wonder if it's just a sign of declining TV use in general. Netflix all the way.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by steveh

Maybe there is no longer any business case for Liberty Global investing seriously in TV in the UK?

They're investing in their networks, but the inherent advantage that cable has had over telco will be lost with new technologies like FTTP. Until Liberty decide to merge ( or not) with Vodafone, things will be up in the air. This all effects decisions about which technologies to use as Vodafone have a different view to Liberty about tv delivery and distribution.

John Malone has always stated he wants content. He owns lots of stuff and he may go after a major film studio and/or channels like AMC. Until he's worked out what he wants, the tv side of things will suffer in the UK until his US interests are all sorted out.

Originally Posted by steveh

In the pay TV market, Sky have caught Virgin in a pincer movement between a budget Now TV (which Virgin probably can't match on wholesale price from Sky) and the top-end Sky Q (which those who want to personally own the best hardware will always choose over cable, no matter how good any new TiVo is). The market for Virgin between them is shrinking too.

Now TV was a brilliant move by Sky and shows why they're still top dogs.

I don't think Now TV is just a defensive move by Sky though to protect its pay tv business by sucking up customers who can't afford pay tv but can afford a little more than Freeeview, but an offensive one. I think Now TV is the prelude to a full blown cable/IPTV service from Sky.

The pincer movement you speak of, is between Sky and BT squeezing VM's business. VM has been a unified company for ten years now but has squandered the time, allowing BT to grow a pay tv business from scratch.

Originally Posted by steveh

New entrants from the paid streaming services are going all out for market share by providing a premium quality experience at a budget price that is subsidised by venture capital funds or other parts of their business. Long term probably only Sky is capable of standing up to the US tech heavyweights. Finally, the most attractive content (sport, movies, quality drama) is already tied up in long term deals elsewhere so Virgin have no route by offering exclusives either.

Agree. Netflix and Amazon are not a major threat to Sky and BT. They both have football and Sky has the films too.

Originally Posted by steveh

Under those circumstances doing all except the minimum needed to milk the existing customer base while it's still viable could be seen as foolhardy. Much better to focus on broadband as the cash cow - especially as here only four companies now control over 90% of the market and one of them probably won't survive much longer.

They have put the focus on broadband, but its not enough.

VM still has a major advantage over BT and Sky. It has a cable tv network. Ducts are already under pavements with cable in them and there's a lot VM can do with that cable. Whereas BT and others need to put in substantial amounts of cash to match VM's current capabilities, let alone future ones. But, do VM take advantage of this? No! By now VM's minimum speeds should be above 100mb to completely trounce FTTC speeds, but they haven't done it.

You may be right about there being a casualty in the broadband market. All the companies will certainly all be quad play: tv, phone, internet and mobile. I think its almost certain Sky and BT will be there, but we'll see what happens with the others.

---------- Post added at 21:22 ---------- Previous post was at 21:16 ----------

Originally Posted by Chad

Virgin have gone totally stagnant. Here's their first quarter results from 2010:

(snip)

They've gone nowhere over the past 6 years!

What more can Virgin really do? Since the first quarter of 2010 they have launched:

(Snip)

There's clearly some other issue. Prices too high? TV packages not attractive? Complete saturation in cabled areas? TalkTalk, BT and SKY have each added over a million new customers during the same period.

Will a new TiVo box later this year change anything? The last 6 years suggest no. The sooner Virgin can make their services available in new areas the better. This is the only way I can see them growing their TV numbers.

I agree about them being stagnant, but they will find it difficult to grow their tv numbers without premium content.

Sluggish stbs, Indian call centres and constant price rises don't help either.

---------- Post added at 21:28 ---------- Previous post was at 21:22 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

Is Virgin Media just managing decline in its TV customer base?.

http://www.seenit.co.uk/virgin-media...aging-decline/

But its not managing though, is it?

[tweedle]

Originally Posted by Stephen

I don't really watch it very often but will sometimes watch a game.

I am just happy it is there if I want it and don't have to pay extra for it.

Ermmmm you are paying extra for it,

[Stephen]

Not really, price rises happen so I am not really angry or outraged TBH.....

[tweedle]

Originally Posted by Kushan

I wonder if it's just a sign of declining TV use in general. Netflix all the way.

No it's not, sky have added 337000 new TV customers.

[richard s]

I reckon that things will get worse for Virgin because of their price increase in February which is almost an extra £46ish a year people have to pay out for a 50 meg increase in broadband speed.

You may get a loyality bonus but what is loyality without such things as upgrading for your loyal customers with new gear now and then at no extra charge, for some of us with have been using the crapy Hub 1 for some time now. Technology is fast moving and if companies hang on and supply outdated equipment than people will jump ship to another company.