# Virgin-Sky Spat



## Dave (Mar 1, 2007)

My apologies but due to the fact I have cable I am no longer going to be able to get Sky One, and hence I am unlikely to be able to watch or moderate the majority of the TV shows we discuss here. If you haven't followed the news, this a report from the Independent.





> Sky and Virgin Media trade insults as deadline passes
> By Saeed Shah
> Published: 01 March 2007
> Virgin Media and BSkyB continued to trade insults yesterday as the deadline approached to agree a deal for the carriage of Sky's channels on the Virgin cable network.
> ...


I do think Sky now has an unfair monopoly, but the cable networks have only themselves to blame. I have had cable a long time - about 14 or 15 years. When I first got it there were about 36 channels. They weren't all very good, many were a waste of energy, but a few were worth having. None of them were original programming by the cable networks, mostly it was American imported series.

I had TeleWest as a provider and their service was appalling. They cut the number of engineers whilst increasing the number of sales staff. The rang me and knocked on my door weekly to try to get me to take their phone service. I almost threw away the box then. This was a telephone service that barely worked. My father-in-law was given three different telephone numbers by them in two months, a work colleague had her phone cut off for over a week, another had his bills sent to a neighbour for six months!

As time went on, the price increased while the number of channels decreased. We lost several channels that the kids watched including Nickelodeon. Toonami took all the original programming from Cartoon Network, which became a shadow of itself. A number of other channels were also cut such as the SciFi Channel until I now have only about 15. NTL took over TeleWest, and before the ink was dry on the contract, Virgin took them over. Of the channels I now still have, I only watch Sky One, and sometimes UK Gold. Everything else and more I can get on Freeview for free.

So that is why I will be canceling my direct debit today. Sky may be acting like a bully, (it bought into ITV last year to prevent Virgin from buying it) but it does have original programming like the Hogfather, and the very best of the American SciFi programmes. Virgin as it stands now has nothing of interest to me. That is their problem not mine.


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## Ice fyre (Mar 1, 2007)

I have been a customer of Telewest for some 7 years.

I decided to go with them after years of dealing with BT's horrific monopoly on telephone services and sky high bills. I have had only slight problems, when my box gave up the ghost they replaced it with a new one very quickly I have had fairly good customer service and I get Broadband from them too, which has a rather nice anti-virus package. 

The SKY service I am told is also good their, customer service I am told is good and their hardware reliable so far. The reason I will not be changing to them is quite frankly I never watch their channels. I really dont think that losing SKY will be a problem as within time the shows will be shown on other channels. 

If SKY want to lose 60 mill thats up to them quite frankly they could lose more if their major sponsors decide that it's just not worth the problems. It sounds like a simple greed situation to me, they tried to do the same when the company was telewest, as did the History channel, both eventually climed down.

This is a storm in a tea cup and I believe just a ploy to get more money out of Virgin customers, we shall see what happens.


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## The Ace (Mar 1, 2007)

I've been with telewest (TV and Phone) for 8 years and have used their broadband for 2, with no complaints.  The first thing Virgin did was increase the non DD surcharge from £2 to £5 and now this !!  Virgin are just being greedy.


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## Ice fyre (Mar 1, 2007)

Now I didnt know that! 

I'm a direct debit customer always have been. I feel that It's always been the best way to pay bills. But that is not fair to non DD customers.

From what I can see its Sky who started asking for more not Virgin though, SKY themselves said they felt pressured into a deal last time that undercut them! So thats why they were demanding more.

This is about a certain media Tycoon's looking for a monopoly and as usual the consumer gets it in the neck. I think this revenge for Virgin forcing certain whitehall bigwigs to investigate the 17.99% shares Sky has in ITV. All analysts agree that you know who dosnt keep an interest in companies he isnt interested in influencing!


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## Dave (Mar 1, 2007)

I agree this is really an argument between Branson and Murdoch but all commentators think they are acting childish and should grow up - just look at the screens Virgin have put to replace the Sky channels - "Sky Snooze try BBC 24" and messages about "Sky have taken their ball home".

The loosers here are the customers, although Virgin customer service was jammed with people cancelling today, and Sky stand to loose £12 million in revenue. They may have trouble affording 'Lost' and the other TV shows they import, then we might actually see then back on terrestrial TV,

I think many people will not switch but simply opt to have neither. That is an option I am considering as I never had the Sky premium services anyway. I could buy the boxed DVD sets of those Sky One programmes I'm missing for about the same money I spent on cable - only I will have to wait a little longer to see them.


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## sanityassassin (Mar 1, 2007)

It is about 2 spoiled kids. One doesn't want to pay anymore and the other wants to gain a bigger market share and beat off competition by pricing them out of the market. The problem I have is that I am not allowed to have a dish installed so Sky is out of the question for me. Also I have just had the new virgin+ box installed so even though I have been a customer for 5 or 6 years I am at the beginning of a 12 month contract. As a lot of people would probably know I am a big fan of the Simpsons and watch it regularly on Sky One along with Futurama apart from them the only thing I watched on Sky One was the 4400.

  I think this is just a storm in a teacup and they will sort it out in a few weeks otherwise both sides will lose out in the deal as Virgin will lose a lot of customers and Sky will lose out in a lot of revenue


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## The Ace (Mar 1, 2007)

Any chance someone could take Murdoch and Branson and bang their heads together ?


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## mosaix (Mar 1, 2007)

The Ace said:


> Any chance someone could take Murdoch and Branson and bang their heads together ?



There's  a distinct possibility that Branson isn't involved at all. Sometimes he franchises the Virgin name to other organisations for a cut in the profits. 

Don't know if that's the case this time.


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## The Ace (Mar 1, 2007)

Maybe, but _that _would be a pay-per-view moneyspinner.


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## Ice fyre (Mar 2, 2007)

If we did bang their heads together the bong would be mistaken for the one o clock gun in Edinburgh! 

We shall see how this pans out but it seems Branson is involved fairly heavily in this.


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## Dave (Mar 2, 2007)

Ice fyre said:


> It seems Branson is involved fairly heavily in this.


There are signs that this is very personal indeed.

Companies always play the 'game of chicken' with contracts, but in this case no one was prepared to chicken out, even though it makes no commercial sense. That sounds like the heart ruling the head to me and not a way to conduct business.


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## Ice fyre (Mar 2, 2007)

Inded 

Another indicator would be that SKY news on Virgin has been re-named SKY snooze along with a note to "try BBC News 24".

On another note it seems the regulator is not very happy about this and is preparing a "super complaint" this could result in some unplesantness ahead for both firms.


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## Lenny (Mar 2, 2007)

It amazed me how many people were talking about this at school today. And every single one of them on Virgin (and quite a number on NTL - Virgin took them over a while ago) said that they were going to [get their parents to] cancel Virgin and probably go with Sky.


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