Virgin Media lack of tv investment

[WillPS]

Originally Posted by weesteev

No investment?? What about the £100m+ investment in migrating the 3 legacy headends to one super headend and migrating over to NAGRA3... that was no mean feat. What about the investment to upgrade the analogue areas of Bolton, Leicester, West London and Derry to all Digital. What about the 20+ HD channels that have appeared in the last 18 months. What about the vastly improved Cisco VHD box. What about TiVo. What about an affordable Tivo in the summer. What about Red Button launching as promised.

Do you think that someone thinks of a product and its delivered in a few weeks? Red button functionality, like TiVo is a massive technological change to the distribution network, Cable TV in its current form in the UK cant match the broadcasting bandwidth of satellite until further changes are made. The company certainly isn't doing nothing and I find it insulting that you suggest so. As a member of this forum then surely you must have seen the endless TiVo, HD, Nagra3 threads to be aware that changes are happening... and all happening to provide a stable and secure future for the company.

You're punishing the customer for solving logistic problems that were not of their making and they have so far seen no improvement as a result of having been solved.

From a customers point of view:
Sky has every channel available
Virgin has quite a few crucial gaps

Sky are rolling out an On Demand service with considerable new content regularly
Virgin's offer seems, frankly, stagnant

You've absolutely no right to be congratulated for rolling out Digital services, this is way overdue.

Rollout of NAGRA3 has absolutely no benefit to the customer.
Merging the headends has absolutely no benefit to the customer.

The pace of change at VM is glacial. Nevermind TiVo (great for anybody who wants to pay for equipment they don't own), what about all the customers who are stuck with Scientific Atlanta V+ boxes which only get slower. When are they going to be upgraded? This year? Unlikely!

These are customers who have patiently waited for 4 years+ for software updates which have never come. Whenever I go home and have to face using my parent's V+ over my Sky+ it's a bloody nightmare - the EPG (running at a speed comparable to ONdigital in 1998) and recording capacity are beyond a joke.

The party line that the company isn't investing in linear channels like Sky Atlantic but is continuing to invest in VoD is frankly tosh - the VoD lineup has less that I want to watch everytime I confront it, and I'm not the fussiest of viewers.

[Henkesghost]

Excellent post

[denphone]

In some areas including adding channels it is certainly very glacial.

Originally Posted by WillPS

You're punishing the customer for solving logistic problems that were not of their making and they have so far seen no improvement as a result of having been solved.

From a customers point of view:
Sky has every channel available
Virgin has quite a few crucial gaps

Sky are rolling out an On Demand service with considerable new content regularly
Virgin's offer seems, frankly, stagnant

You've absolutely no right to be congratulated for rolling out Digital services, this is way overdue.

Rollout of NAGRA3 has absolutely no benefit to the customer.
Merging the headends has absolutely no benefit to the customer.

The pace of change at VM is glacial. Nevermind TiVo (great for anybody who wants to pay for equipment they don't own), what about all the customers who are stuck with Scientific Atlanta V+ boxes which only get slower. When are they going to be upgraded? This year? Unlikely!

These are customers who have patiently waited for 4 years+ for software updates which have never come. Whenever I go home and have to face using my parent's V+ over my Sky+ it's a bloody nightmare - the EPG (running at a speed comparable to ONdigital in 1998) and recording capacity are beyond a joke.

The party line that the company isn't investing in linear channels like Sky Atlantic but is continuing to invest in VoD is frankly tosh - the VoD lineup has less that I want to watch everytime I confront it, and I'm not the fussiest of viewers.

VM are IMO moving in the right direction but I agree in some areas at a slow pace. The reason being they are not bursting at the seems with cash. If they tried to do everything at once they would just go bust. If you look at what they have done since they became Virgin Media they have upgraded their whole network and now are bringing in a much needed improved software. At the end of the day though it is all down to money and it is impossible for them to move at the pace some would like or compete with Sky in the business of channel ownership because they just don't have Sky's cash.
BTW Your mention of anytime+ isn't the best one to make your argument. It has arrived years after cable had VOD, seven months after launch you still need to have Sky's own broadband and an HD box so only a minority of customers can use it. Also I think I am right in saying it has no HD and no catch up from the main channels. If that is the best a company can do who is bursting with funds then I think it gives some idea of why VM aren't moving as fast as some would like.

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by ahardie

VM are IMO moving in the right direction but I agree in some areas at a slow pace. The reason being they are not bursting at the seems with cash. If they tried to do everything at once they would just go bust. If you look at what they have done since they became Virgin Media they have upgraded their whole network and now are bringing in a much needed improved software. At the end of the day though it is all down to money and it is impossible for them to move at the pace some would like or compete with Sky in the business of channel ownership because they just don't have Sky's cash.
BTW Your mention of anytime+ isn't the best one to make your argument. It has arrived years after cable had VOD, seven months after launch you still need to have Sky's own broadband and an HD box so only a minority of customers can use it. Also I think I am right in saying it has no HD and no catch up from the main channels. If that is the best a company can do who is bursting with funds then I think it gives some idea of why VM aren't moving as fast as some would like.

Sky Anytime+ does have HD albeit only for some movies, you are correct that it does not offer catch up from the networks.

It does however offer 500 movies and box sets from top US networks which Sky must think is more attractive than catch up services like the iplayer which are freely available on a plethora of platforms.

As ever it's upto the punter what they prefer.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by WillPS

You're punishing the customer for solving logistic problems that were not of their making and they have so far seen no improvement as a result of having been solved.

From a customers point of view:
Sky has every channel available
Virgin has quite a few crucial gaps

True.

Sky are rolling out an On Demand service with considerable new content regularly
Virgin's offer seems, frankly, stagnant

True.

You've absolutely no right to be congratulated for rolling out Digital services, this is way overdue.

Rollout of NAGRA3 has absolutely no benefit to the customer.
Merging the headends has absolutely no benefit to the customer.

Not yet. However the roll out of Nagra3 should reduce the number of freeloaders on the system (which may mean more income for VM), and the merging of headends together with network upgrades will mean that VM have capacity for more channels (which was becoming an issue), which will enable them to add more. Ergo, the customer *will* benefit.

The pace of change at VM is glacial. Nevermind TiVo (great for anybody who wants to pay for equipment they don't own), what about all the customers who are stuck with Scientific Atlanta V+ boxes which only get slower. When are they going to be upgraded? This year? Unlikely!

When do Sky upgrade your box for free? Oh, that's right. They don't, unless you threaten to leave..

The party line that the company isn't investing in linear channels like Sky Atlantic but is continuing to invest in VoD is frankly tosh - the VoD lineup has less that I want to watch everytime I confront it, and I'm not the fussiest of viewers.

VM do need to do major work on the VOD line up. However, it still beats Sky from what I have seen..

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by Stuart

True.

True.


Not yet. However the roll out of Nagra3 should reduce the number of freeloaders on the system (which may mean more income for VM), and the merging of headends together with network upgrades will mean that VM have capacity for more channels (which was becoming an issue), which will enable them to add more. Ergo, the customer *will* benefit.


When do Sky upgrade your box for free? Oh, that's right. They don't, unless you threaten to leave..



VM do need to do major work on the VOD line up. However, it still beats Sky from what I have seen..

Nagra 3 will also benefit BSkyB (I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had a hand in cable finally tightening up their encryption), as VM in the main just rediffuse other providers content it is arguable it was mostly them that were being ripped off.

[carlwaring]

Wow! Nice spin

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by carlwaring

Wow! Nice spin

Content providers have been losing millions over the years because of cable's inability to secure their network so thankfully that has ended now.

Carlos I have never come across anyone who rolls their eyes as much as you, then again I have never come across anyone like you full stop, thankfully!

[carlwaring]

Well if people stop giving me reason to stop doing so, that'd be great

[denphone]

Virgin have come a long way from the NTL-TELEWEST days but cannot stand still and put all its eggs in one basket with tivo, it needs to strengthen its VOD offering as it has become very stale in the last year and it also needs to add more HD and SD channels in the near future.

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by mersey70

Nagra 3 will also benefit BSkyB (I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had a hand in cable finally tightening up their encryption), as VM in the main just rediffuse other providers content it is arguable it was mostly them that were being ripped off.

Yes probably a requirement from Sky , part of the deal to VM ending up with the Sky HD channels.

[carlwaring]

I always love a bit of wild speculation

[denphone]

Originally Posted by carlwaring

I always love a bit of wild speculation

Yes you are a expert in a bit of wild speculation, only joking.

[carlwaring]

Should hope you are as that is something I never actually do