Coming Soon to Virgin TV (2011) Vol. I.

Originally Posted by Dave42

sky has made it plain from start it a sky exclusive in the millions they spent on the adverts so hows that VM fault they want it all to themself they only want one thing a monopoly sooner people see this the better

They also said this in a press release

"Sky Atlantic HD is a key part of our strategy to help further grow the content gap between what you can get with Sky, and what you can get elsewhere."

This is not a company trying to create a channel to sell on to customers at a reasonable price. They are using this channel to try and force customers over to their platform.

[LexDiamond]

Originally Posted by ahardie

What makes you think in a few months time things will be better? If there isn't regulation to protect the customer what's to say things wont get worse to the point where we eventually onl have one choice of platform. How can that possibly be to our benefit?
Ofcom have said that they are looking in to make it easier to be able to swap platforms. I'm hoping channel exclusivity will be part of that investigation.

Because quite simply there will probably be a point where Sky will want to take VM's money off their hands so Sky will drop the exclusivity to its own platform.

Regulation will inevitably lead to higher prices paid by the consumer. It is not a good thing.

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Neil Berkett on competition with Sky

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...and-speed.html

---------- Post added at 16:29 ---------- Previous post was at 16:23 ----------

Dont expect TIVO soon

Superior it may be, but the high speeds are just an enabler. What is "game-changing", says Berkett, is Virgin Media's new internet-enabled cable TV box, which will be available to all of its cable TV customers in a few months.

Mainly concentrating on Broadband

Berkett's world is distinctly less Hollywood. Today's Virgin Media is all about the digital experience and Berkett often points to Virgin's advantage over BSkyB and BT in "connectivity", his way of describing the benefits of super-fast broadband.

Thanx for posting the link muppetman, I find the content quiet worrying, TV customers appear to be in for more disappointments this year.
Whilst I appreciate all the improvements made in the last year, Neill Berkett appears to be looking at Broadband speed as the companies utopia.

Originally Posted by LexDiamond

Because quite simply there will probably be a point where Sky will want to take VM's money off their hands so Sky will drop the exclusivity to its own platform.

You can see from the quote in my post above that Sky have no intention of doing so.

Originally Posted by LexDiamond

Regulation will inevitably lead to higher prices paid by the consumer. It is not a good thing.

No it wont. A monopoly will lead to an increase in prices. Whilst Sky has some exclusive content it gives them much less incentive to compete on prices. Which is probably one reason why they do it.

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

I was being very brief in my responce.

I think if both Sky and Cable (as 1 company)had the same start time, then things may of been very different.

Certainly BSB was poorly run and managed, but lets not forget that both Sky and BSB were about to go bankrupt. A merger was the only answer for these two.

---------- Post added at 12:00 ---------- Previous post was at 11:53 ----------



suprised at Sky for not letting a competitor have it?

I am not sure it would have made any difference if the same cable players had launched at the same time as Sky, they were terribly mismanaged but they were a victim of the franchise system, I accept that.

Maybe it could have let them get the killer content first like EPL before Sky, that would have been the huge difference and that's still the case now but would they gone after it anyway? again i'm not so sure.

---------- Post added at 20:18 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ----------

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

They were not desperate to sell - Sky gave the best offer, by a long shot.

Amongst other things.....

Sky Movies HD channels - you'd NEVER of got these without this deal

Sky RED button - As above (almost ready on this one)

Sky VoD - as above

Sky1HD - again, Sky would have never of given this to VM without the VMtv sale.

As a consumer you are free to choose what service provider you use, but VM is far from a poor choice.

Sky can't do VOD like VM can, so they only have their own channels as far as content is concerned.

It will be intersting once the Competition Commision has finished it's investigation in to Sky, with-holding VOD rights to competitiors, for movies it can't show.

VM are also persuing a complaint with Ofcom regarding the unfair £7 PER BOX rule that Sky imposes on them.

I think everyone should hang fire and see what the Competition Commission say regarding the sale of BSkyB, there could be some very interesting conditions laid on News Corp to allow the sale to go through.

There has been press reports that Sky News would be excluded from the sale of BSkyB which would be disastrous for competition as it's a loss making outfit and probably not that attactive as a stand alone purchase. It could be we end up with one domestic news channel, a licence fee funded one at that, hardly competitive is it?

There is no way News Corp are just going to be given BSkyB on a plate which in some respects might be good news for other platforms regarding access to content and the likes.

Regarding the 'unfair' £7 charge that VM are complaining about on what grounds are they basing the complaint? Sky charge their own customers £10.25 per box for HD.

Seems a bit 'good guy, bad guy' to me and another waste of time. I'd rather have Sky Arts HD!

[howardmicks]

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

Thanx for posting the link muppetman, I find the content quiet worrying, TV customers appear to be in for more disappointments this year.
Whilst I appreciate all the improvements made in the last year, Neill Berkett appears to be looking at Broadband speed as the companies utopia.

Neil Berkett has an announcement to make: Virgin Media's battle with Sky for the pay-TV market is over.

Yep Berkett as lost the plot i think,Clearly tv aint is prioty.Look like sky are going to be laughing all the way to the bank,Not what you want to be reading when there trying to push a overpriced tivo box on us.

[Henkesghost]

Honestly seems that virgin have lost interest in tv. Sadly if you want your tv service to be as cutting edge as your broadband ye'll have to go to sky. As I've said before got phone mobile tv and broadband with virgin. Would rather keep them all with one company but tv is falling further and further behind with no hint of improvement. If you think otherwise you're deluded

[howardmicks]

Originally Posted by Henkesghost

Honestly seems that virgin have lost interest in tv. Sadly if you want your tv service to be as cutting edge as your broadband ye'll have to go to sky. As I've said before got phone mobile tv and broadband with virgin. Would rather keep them all with one company but tv is falling further and further behind with no hint of improvement. If you think otherwise you're deluded

Agree just glad i aint got that tivo and signed a 18month contract,He as just commited Commercial suicide on the tivo box after that article.Who in the right mind is gonna spend nearly £200 on a set top box when the company`s own boss as given up on the tv side.

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by howardmicks

Neil Berkett has an announcement to make: Virgin Media's battle with Sky for the pay-TV market is over.

Yep Berkett as lost the plot i think,Clearly tv aint is prioty.Look like sky are going to be laughing all the way to the bank,Not what you want to be reading when there trying to push a overpriced tivo box on us.

Its a strange statement when he is trying to sell us on a TiVo box Commercial suicide is not to strong.

[howardmicks]

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

Its a strange statement when he is trying to sell us on a TiVo box

Clearly thats why he wants people on 18 month contracts,you will then be stuck with a poor man`s tv.Think im going to have to really think about cancelling the tv side and just keeping broadband and phone,Gutted i was reallly impressed with the progress they made last year doesn`t sound like its gonna be the same this year.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by howardmicks

Clearly thats why he wants people on 18 month contracts,you will then be stuck with a poor man`s tv.Think im going to have to really think about cancelling the tv side and just keeping broadband and phone,Gutted i was reallly impressed with the progress they made last year doesn`t sound like its gonna be the same this year.

The 18 month contracts are for new customers taking the offer on the website but you can still go for a 12 month contract just by paying more.

[alwaysabear]

Originally Posted by Masque

The 18 month contracts are for new customers taking the offer on the website but you can still go for a 12 month contract just by paying more.

Why would anyone when you read that interview.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

Why would anyone when you read that interview.

As the are new customers every single day signing up I would not know.

[howardmicks]

Originally Posted by Masque

The 18 month contracts are for new customers taking the offer on the website but you can still go for a 12 month contract just by paying more.

No disrespect to you and thanks for the info but what is the point when he is coming out with statements like that to the press,He is gonna struggle to keep hold of the customers he already has let alone get new ones.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by howardmicks

No disrespect to you and thanks for the info but what is the point when he is coming out with statements like that to the press,He is gonna struggle to keep hold of the customers he already has let alone get new ones.

I was just pointing out the options available nothing more.