Who Will Win? Sky or Virgin?

[NickSCFC]

At the moment how many customers do Sky have compared to Virgin?

Originally Posted by WittyName

I've just seen an ad on Sky One asking ntl customers to contact ntl and demand they keep the Sky channels.

Considering it's Sky that are threatening to remove their channels from Ntl/virgin its' rather a cheeky advert.


However as there aren't any programmes that I currently want to watch on any Sky channel it's no loss to me.

[NTLVictim]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

sky do seem to be more inovative and willing to try new things, i read somewhere this week Sky have just won the rights to the worlds first Origami Championships in Japan. Apparently it is only on paper view though until they recoup some of the initial outlay

PAPER view??? am I the only person who noticed this? Origami...paper...I'll get me coat.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by hardtarget

This may be exagerating it but who knows they both might go as far as completely making their services free :-)

No, they won't. The advertising market in this country isn't big enough to make up the losses.

[etccarmageddon]

Originally Posted by NickSCFC

At the moment how many customers do Sky have compared to Virgin?

11million sky and 3million virgin media (I think) - TV customers. it's in today's daily mail.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Horace

Satellite coverage is excellent and for the time being at least is the best medium for TV broadcast, it is however very expensive with limited capacity, albeit not as limited as cable. As bandwidth increases and cost lower, eventually, and I'm not talking in the next couple of years here, satellite will become uneconomical vs IPTV.

How much capacity is there for channels on a long line struggling to provide 1mbit of bandwidth? I think you thinking of IPTV going over decent fiber rather then long copper length.

[Zee]

Regarding the latest news article on the main page:

Something seriously needs to be done to try and stop Sky, this isn't fair, and since Sky One is a major channel airing popular shows such as 24 & Lost, this is getting pretty out of hand.

Even though there are other ways of watching these programs without the need of Sky One, major people don't know or don't have access to this so it may cause some major problems for VM customers who have signed a 12 month contract to be able to watch Sky One.

I found it funny though that Virgin Media are "shocked".

Originally Posted by awibble

wonder when they will do electric, gas, water, insurace etc etc so i can just pay 1 bill a month.

Strange that you should mention this. See link below.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...3/cnvirg13.xml

[tweetypie/8]

Originally Posted by Toto

Martyn, Sky are rattled. Threats to "pull" channels shows that they are concerned that now, more than ever, they have a fight on their hands. It may still be ntl / Telewest under the wrapper, but thinga are changing, and changing for the better.

Ultimately though, the winners are the great British public. To quote a phrase from days gone by - "We have never had it so good".

you are talking good sense mate they know they are in for a rough ride and with branson on board things will definitley change for the better,i am a great advocate of the old saying [your better off with the devil you know than the one you dont know ]

[andygrif]

Isn't the question a little too simplistic? It's like saying, who will win; Ford or Vauxhall?

It doesn't really matter who sells more (or perhaps it should be which company loses the least) as long as you're happy with the car. If you want to judge the 'winner' based on turnover or profit, that's fine but not that important to the consumer.

The other simplistic view I've seen on this thread is that the winner will be the consumer. To some extent this might have some bearing, but Sky has always had cable as a competitor, and managed to make significant early gains over them. In most markets there is no price war (at least no prolonged one) and I cannot see one on the horizon in this market either. Realistically it would be Virgin (or perhaps BT or another new extrant) that would have to start it, as Sky are so far ahead in terms of sub figures right now.

The bottom line is that there is space enough for two or more companies in each market without there being a loser.

[NTLVictim]

Simplistic? Competition always improves things for the consumer, and up until now, Sky have had no competition. They have had no competition because ntl's customer service was as rough as a bears' bum so Sky's had to be no better, and the picture quality and range of channels on Sky was better, plus no freezing, al la ntl.

You'll notice the repeated use of the word WAS, however...

All it takes is for one player to raise their game, and the rest have to follow which is a good thing for the end user..to borrow the Ford/Vauxhall analogy, if competition didn't exist, we'd all still be driving around in monstrosities like the Vauxhall Viva.

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

Simplistic? Competition always improves things for the consumer, and up until now, Sky have had no competition. They have had no competition because ntl's customer service was as rough as a bears' bum so Sky's had to be no better, and the picture quality and range of channels on Sky was better, plus no freezing, al la ntl.

You'll notice the repeated use of the word WAS, however...

All it takes is for one player to raise their game, and the rest have to follow which is a good thing for the end user..to borrow the Ford/Vauxhall analogy, if competition didn't exist, we'd all still be driving around in monstrosities like the Vauxhall Viva.

I think you're getting confused between evolution and economics

Whilst I'd agree that Sky's CS is pretty poor, it is (in my personal experience) not as poor as ntl's. The big difference in my experience is that I never have to call Sky's CS, becuase the product works better. Purely anecdotal, but that's honestly my experience.

So now ntl has a new sign outside the door, but am I really the only person who thinks that a new coat of paint does not change the years of rot inside a couple of rather insipid cable companies, dreadful training, a mele of unconnected systems and management that learned everything on survival of the fittest from the dinosaurs themselves?!?!

VM has the same number of customers this week that the combined ntl:telewest had last week, so what's changed? All the staff? No. All the systems? No. All the management? Not yet, but here's hoping!

Maybe I will be wrong (and actually I hope I am) but I've seen rebrands, mergers, direction changes of cable too many times, and it really didn't get any better and it certainly didn't lead to lower prices.

[NTLVictim]

I see you are a fan of Spine Milligna, the well known typing error, so I won't disagree..

I agree it would be nice if it changed for the better , but I think there is some serious shaking out still to do.

Oh, and evolution is driven by the need to survive..and so is competition in business!

[Wod]

Sky,Sky lol. There television service is much better.And so is the broadband depending on where you live. I think virgin should think about upgrading speeds, they seem to be falling behind slowly.