VM General News Thread

[denphone]

Exactly as Sky are reducing a lot of their outlets as well.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by denphone

Virgin Media to disappear from the UK high street.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...et-coronavirus

I would imagine that post-merger, the O2 shops will market Virgin Media's services as well, in the way that the EE shops now market BT services - well, once they reopen, that is!

[Pierre]

I’ve never understood why they were there anyway

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Pierre

I’ve never understood why they were there anyway

They were inherited from Virgin Mobile as that's how most mobile phones were sold back in the day.

[Gavin-D]

Virgin Media will freeze its prices this year after scrapping the annual 5% hike

No doubt they'll make it for it with either 2 rises next year or a bumper 10% rise in Autumn 2021.

[Tricky Trevor]

Just what I was thinking when I read the news

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Gavin-D

Virgin Media will freeze its prices this year after scrapping the annual 5% hike

No doubt they'll make it for it with either 2 rises next year or a bumper 10% rise in Autumn 2021.

I'm sure VM would increase its prices if it could. Sadly, we're just at the start of a big recession so organisations like VM will be reluctant to attempt any significant price rises in 2021.
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/ci...on-mean-for-uk
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52986863

[Inactive Digital]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I'm sure VM would increase its prices if it could. Sadly, we're just at the start of a big recession so organisations like VM will be reluctant to attempt any significant price rises in 2021.
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/ci...on-mean-for-uk
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52986863

It's probably as much to do with VM's ability to handle a large volume of inbound calls at the moment too. According to the website, some of their call centres are still closed. Welcome news for customers though.

If I was VM, I'd use this as an opportunity to align with Sky's annual rise in April, so that Sport and Cinema customers don't have quite so many rounds of price rises each year.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Inactive Digital

It's probably as much to do with VM's ability to handle a large volume of inbound calls at the moment too. According to the website, some of their call centres are still closed. Welcome news for customers though.

If I was VM, I'd use this as an opportunity to align with Sky's annual rise in April, so that Sport and Cinema customers don't have quite so many rounds of price rises each year.

I think aligning VM's price rises to April is a sensible one although it's not guaranteed that Sky will raise its prices next April, for the reason I outlined.

[Inactive Digital]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I think aligning VM's price rises to April is a sensible one although it's not guaranteed that Sky will raise its prices next April, for the reason I outlined.

Yes, I remember Sky freezing their prices for a year during the recession - it would have been around 2009 or 2010. You probably remember that Virgin used to raise prices in February, but that changed after 2016, when there were two price rises. I guess this year's freeze partly makes up for that double rise.

[vincerooney]

I'm reading the o2 and three mobile merger is back on potentially after the EU court backed down.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...uk-merger.html

What does this mean for o2-virgin media merger?? or will o2 merge with 3 and then merge with virgin media?!

surely the courts wont allow that as it shrinks the market even more

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by vincerooney

I'm reading the o2 and three mobile merger is back on potentially after the EU court backed down.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...uk-merger.html

What does this mean for o2-virgin media merger?? or will o2 merge with 3 and then merge with virgin media?!

surely the courts wont allow that as it shrinks the market even more

It’s not “back on”.

The reason for it being stopped has been overturned that’s all. O2 have moved on and the joint venture with VM is well on track.

Just goes to show though how damaging EU bureaucracy can be to business. 4 years down the line that decision has taken.

[Aye Up]

Originally Posted by Pierre

It’s not “back on”.

The reason for it being stopped has been overturned that’s all. O2 have moved on and the joint venture with VM is well on track.

Just goes to show though how damaging EU bureaucracy can be to business. 4 years down the line that decision has taken.

The EU commission was never going to go against the wishes of Ofcom, CMA and the Government on that decision. It made no sense if I'm honest, its one of the few things I will praise the EU for.

However as you say the JV between VM and O2 is going ahead, there is very litte concern in respect of competition as O2 doesn't have a fixed line network and VM doesn't have its own mobile network. This will likely go through with little issue, plus I doubt the EU Commission will given an opinion anyway considering we are leaving in the next 4 and a bit months.

O2 + Three would have reduced competition, however the JV does not.

[1andrew1]

Liberty Global today said it has acquired Swiss telecoms group Sunrise Communications in a deal worth 6.8bn Swiss francs ($7.4bn).

Liberty, which is run by US cable mogul John Malone, said it had agreed to buy Sunrise for 110 Swiss francs a share, representing a 32 per cent premium on the company’s average share price in the 60 days to 11 August...

The deal comes less than a year after Sunrise’s 6.3bn franc attempt to take over Liberty’s Swiss cable business UPC fell through last year.

https://www.cityam.com/liberty-globa...ise-for-7-4bn/

[Horizon]

The old codger is at it again...

AT&T are going to spin off their WarnerMedia assets and merge them with Malone's Discovery.

And of course for those conspiracy theorists out there, don't be surprised if this becomes another one of Malone's great tax "planning" wheezes, with as much AT&T debt (acquired when AT&T bought Time Warner) loaded onto the new entity as possible.

And if anyone remembers my comments regarding ITV, look out for future action there too. Discovery owns a chunk of ITV and with rising ad sales, ITV could be an attractive buy for the new Warner/Discovery company. Check out my first post of this thread (and my original thread on this linked from the first post of this thread), and throw in Lionsgate and Starz into the cooking pot for good measure too.

Also, I would expect Comcast to do a similar thing in the end and spin off its media assets and merge them with someone like Viacom. Remember what's currently going on with VM and O2... read between the lines there.

Now, can the old codger do any better than this deal, of course he can! Don't forget Amazon, Apple et all are still waiting in the wings. $150bn companies might sound big to us, but when you're a trillion dollar company, $150bn is not such a big deal, save for a bit of indigestion. Get the rennies out, as the biggies are still to come in the next few years.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/16/att-...discovery.html