Sir Richard Branson on TV-17th Jan 2012

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by m8internet

Please refer to original text and wording
His involvement in Virgin Media has vastly reduced, in the first year there were numerous appearances, in the last year there were hardly any by comparison

"group advert", Virgin Media makes a very short appearance and you have to be eagle eyed to see
it!
Makes it look like Virgin got some cheap advetising space early in 2012 by the sheer volume and variants
I've even been offered three media streams for website advertising, the last time was 2009

No I was refering to the new double broadband speed campain I am Richard Branson. He is in all of our new advertising.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Peter_

That s because he has never owned Virgin Media just leased the name to NTL/Telewest for a maximum period of up to 30 years, minimum term is 10 years.

great money spinner.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

great money spinner.

Nice money if you can get it.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Hugh

February 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6343341.stm

Interesting, so in theory, it could change again in about 5 years time.

Originally Posted by thunderlips

i missed it on t.v. other night, wanted to watch it, cant find it on catch up or itv player. !

I was away from home, so recorded it. I've not had time to watch it yet, so don't know if it was any good or not.

As at this moment in time, it is still not on CUTV. IIRC the series is repeated
on ITV2, or 3 or 4 a couple of days later, so it might be worth checking the EPG.
.

[Alan Fry]

Could Virgin Media rename themselfs British Cable?

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Could Virgin Media rename themselfs British Cable?

They could but won't.

[devilincarnate]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Interesting, so in theory, it could change again in about 5 years time.

What would they change the name to? If it was a progression of names of a certain subject, I would not like to think of the name after Virgin

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by m8internet

I am not refering to the Virgin Media adverts, I am referring to the group adverts, of which there are only two on TV at the moment

Would point the main one is not Virgin Group advert, it's an advert for Virgin Money

Dunno why Virgin Media wasn't included, suppose everything else (record/Galactic/Plane/Train/Balloon) is moving, can't really do that with a TiVo box or SuperHub :/

[m419]

Richard Bransons Virgin Group initially had around 10% ownership and Richard Branson was in fact the largest shareholder of NTL Telewest Group 2006. The deal was also to use the Virgin name replacing NTL Telewest for long period of time on terms of a lease.

NTL and Virgin actually go back to 1996 when they both launched virgin.net

And Virgin initially used Mercury for all there businesses, in fact Richard Branson himself once featured in a Mercury TV ad in the early 90s(see link below), that is a sign he wanted to get into the telecoms business! He's always used Cable and Wireless and NTL, One2one at the time of launch of Virgin Mobile was still owned by Cable and Wireless. And yes Mercury was Cable and Wireless and not NTL, but NTL did eventually take over the residential 131 and 132 dialler service for a while so literally making it all the same.

Virgin.net became a wholly owned company of NTL in 2003, first step towards the making of Virgin Media?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrxKeFd6NY4

Funnily enough all those Mercury payphones disappeared 3 years later to become Interphone bright and orange kiosks.

But back to the subject, Richard Branson has wanted a piece of telecoms market and now he's got it, he doesn't need to own 100% of it, when it comes down to it Virgin Media is a PLC and Richard Branson is one of the largest shareholders, whilst Virgin has there name branded across NTL Telewest, they are involved! Although I think they should have more involvement in what goes on than they already do, they don't necessarily need to own 100% of it to do that!

[RichardCoulter]

I've just watched my recording of the programme. VM wasn't mentioned, but it showed him to have a good sense of humour, I wouldn't mind meeting him.

Btw, he doesn't carry money, doesn't know how to use a cash machine and doesn't know the price of a pint of milk!

[qasdfdsaq]

Runs a financial company, doesn't know how to use a cash machine. No wonder the whole industry is doomed.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Runs a financial company, doesn't know how to use a cash machine. No wonder the whole industry is doomed.

He also can't drive a train or fly a Jumbo Jet either - I would still use those companies....

[qasdfdsaq]

No, I'd say a more relevant comparison would be doesn't know how to use a train ticket (or ticket machine) or doesn't know how to use an airport check-in.

(Cash machines are a very basic customer-use commodity of a bank, passengers don't drive the trains, or fly planes)

[RichardCoulter]

I part own a coffee shop, but have no idea how to make the continental coffees on offer! Why? Well, I have no need to know and no interest in learning.

Your argument is just silly, as many high fliers are too busy creating wealth and employment to concern themselves with menial everyday tasks.

Incidentally, the reason his wife banned him from using cashpoints was that he stated the PIN number out loud once too often

PS Anyone know why we say PIN number, as the acronym stands for Personal Identification Number, we are, in fact saying "Personal Identification Number, Number"!!!

[qasdfdsaq]

You can't read can you?

Like I said, the example is using a service of that industry as any average customer would. Customers don't make the coffee in coffee shops.

An actually relevant example would be you not knowing how to operate a coffee cup. Then again I wouldn't be at all surprised.