Sky Atlantic on Virgin Media

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

I think the important wording is:



This means that they can, if they wanted to, not that they have to. I presume it is a matter of bandwidth, rather than desire. However, I am pretty sure Countdown has been available in HD VoD in the past.

It also says 'Now a selection of these shows will also be available in HD format'

Countdown isn't in HD even on C4 HD.

Personally I have never seen a 4OD show in HD, maybe some of the pay per view shows were but they are no longer available as far as I know.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by mersey70

It also says 'Now a selection of these shows will also be available in HD format'

Countdown isn't in HD even on C4 HD.

Personally I have never seen a 4OD show in HD, maybe some of the pay per view shows were but they are no longer available as far as I know.

I must have been mistaken.

[dsmuk]

Originally Posted by Flyboy

I think the important wording is:

[Quote not copied]

This means that they can, if they wanted to, not that they have to. I presume it is a matter of bandwidth, rather than desire. However, I am pretty sure Countdown has been available in HD VoD in the past.

But they were at one point telling us the future of HD was VoD, they had the opportunity and chose not to use it, despite them believing HD VoD was the future.

Also mentioned somewhere in this thread was how VM have secured access to the Sky HD channels and VoD content, don't know about anyone else but I am finding the Sky VoD content a bit thin on the ground, Sky Arts HD has never materialsed and red button is 'coming soon'. Excellent work Virgin!

If there was one person VM need to poach from Sky it would be the head of the negotiations, they do a fantastic job for Sky.

[Chad]

From the press release regarding the sale of VMTV to SKY.

"Neil Berkett, CEO, Virgin Media, said: "The sale of our channels business has generated substantial value. Together with the new commercial agreements we've announced today, it will allow us to focus more closely on our strategy of exploiting Virgin Media's super-fast connectivity to offer our customers a range of the very best content through a highly versatile next generation entertainment application."

Sounds like a reference to TIVO. Will the Red Button facility for SKY Sports only be available to TIVO customers of Virgin or everyone? From previous posts in this forum, looks like TIVO and the Red Button facility should be coming along at the same time.

[devilincarnate]

Originally Posted by dsmuk

If there was one person VM need to poach from Sky it would be the head of the negotiations, they do a fantastic job for Sky.

Yes they can do some good deals and also they can mess up deals.
Take the deal for ESPN all SKY customers have to pay extra for it ( more if you do not subscribe to the SKY sports package ). Then VM took their time to get them and got them free for customers on the XL tv pack.

[OLD BOY]

There is no doubt in my mind that VM were slow to embrace HD but they seem to have been learning fast over the last year or so and I do hope that the deal they signed with Sky contained a clause that gave VM the option to take any new channel launched by Sky at a wholesale price.

Frankly, I would be surprised if Sky tried to withold the channel because they will need the advertising revenues to pay for the expensive content that Sky Atlantic will contain, particularly given that there is no additional subscription to Sky subscribers.

The most likely scenario is that we will get Sky Atlantic SD from launch. I will be seriously upset if we don't, unless of course the programming appears on VOD.

If they do move An Idiot Abroad to Atlantic I'l be annoyed, one of the few decent shows on Sky and definitely there best self produced show.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by Jameseh

If they do move An Idiot Abroad to Atlantic I'l be annoyed, one of the few decent shows on Sky and definitely there best self produced show.

But then they don't really have that much to compare it to though.

[nutellajunkie]

ach they screwed up anyway.. Selling all the rights and channels and all that she-bang to sky.. what are VM thinking? We dont even have Virgin One no more, so whats the point in supporting sky channels, if you aint on sky? In the end, it just gonna cost the cable viewer even more to watch anyway...

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Chad

Will the Red Button facility for SKY Sports only be available to TIVO customers of Virgin or everyone?

Everyone. (Well, everyone who subscribes to Sky Sports)

Originally Posted by Chad

From previous posts in this forum, looks like TIVO and the Red Button facility should be coming along at the same time.

The two are unrelated.

Originally Posted by Flyboy

But then they don't really have that much to compare it to though.

Yeah I know I'm just saying it should be 'treated better' as its their show as apposed to others that are flung around channel to channel. Plus in all honestly apart from Bones and House its probably their best show in general.

[nialli]

Sky Atlantic is being advertised as "the home of HBO", but it will have some series from other US cable channels (Mad Men's from AMC, Breaking Bad is FX). I can't see US network series debuting on Atlantic, but that doesn't mean that the next BSG spin off won't be on Atlantic as that's from the cable channel Syfy. The only US Network shows I've seen mentioned for Atlantic are the proposed daytime shows which are repeats from some time back (X-Files was Fox, ER and Seinfeld were NBC).
Missing from Atlantic's HBO exclusive deal though is, ironically, the channel's biggest (only?) hit in years - True Blood, which remains with FX and Channel 4.
I would dearly love for VM to have Atlantic HD from launch - for me it promises a fabulous lineup. We may get the SD channel, which would be better than nothing. Sky has paid a lot of cash for a minority channel and will exploit it as it sees fit, but to deny VM customers the SD version whilst closing so many other channels recently (Bravo and VirginOne to name just two) would seem to me unfair and even cruel, but typical of Sky.

Its typical of rival companies. We should thank god for Ofcom or we'd be in a much much worse position than we are now.

[dsmuk]

Originally Posted by devilincarnate

Yes they can do some good deals and also they can mess up deals.
Take the deal for ESPN all SKY customers have to pay extra for it ( more if you do not subscribe to the SKY sports package ). Then VM took their time to get them and got them free for customers on the XL tv pack.

Would have thought that if it was in Sky's interest to offer the same deal as Virgin they would have.

Virgin customers have traditionally not taken to the premium channels and so it may have been the case that looking at Setanta subscribers numbers they were better offering it wholesale to Virgin customers. Whereas, Sky customers have shown a willingness to subscribe to additional services and it was more profitable for both ESPN and Sky to it as a stand alone package.

Added into that equation Sky Sports were contracted in ESPN's first year to film and produce all live football matches. Sky was also contracted to manage ESPN subscribers giving them full access to ESPNs subscriber numbers, churn and details of who is subscribing to ESPN - a massive insight into a potential major threat longterm to Sky Sports.

Sky's negotiation team do a fantastic job for them.

[Paranoimia]

Apparently Sky Atlantic is a free basic channel on the Sky platform, so since they're poaching a number of shows from the Virgin channels they bought and are closing down, I'd hope this will be available on Virgin, from launch, and at no extra cost.

Well, I can dream.