Sky pulled out from VirginMedia. Meh. :-(

So, after working hard all day yesterday I eventually sit back, relax, and turn on the TV for a little bit of 'Bones' (CSIish show for those that don't watch it).

But all I get is this littlemessage about Sky having pulled out of their renewing contract with VirginMedia and taking their shows with them.

Now I know that there had been some ads running on Sky One saying that Virgin were planning on dropping Sky channels (and encouraging folks to switch to a Sky subscription ) but not only has this turned out to be misleading, but they yanked thier channels with no warning at all to the customers.

To be honest I'm not a massive TV addict, but there were a few series that I regularly watched (namely Lost, 24, Battlestar Galactica & Bones) that were all on Sky One and in the middle of their run.

I'll have to either download episodes now or get them on DVD (which I only currently do with 24).

So, having only ever downloaded a couple of things from iTunes...

... where do you download TV stuff from?





Oh yeah - and I wonder if Mr Branson will be giving me a discount for my interrupted service.

Originally Posted by K

Oh yeah - and I wonder if Mr Branson will be giving me a discount for my interrupted service.

Let me field that question........NOPE!

pulled out

snigger

Sky didn't actually 'pull out'. They put their prices up and Virgin won't pay.
http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMos...34181720070301
http://news.independent.co.uk/busine...cle2314251.ece
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...570032,00.html

To be honest it's all pot and kettle between the two of them... and the customer usually ends up on the losing side whatever.

I do still kind of lean in favour of Branson over Murdoch though. With Sky intending to pull it's channels from Freeview too...

... I like the idea behind Virgin's replacement - 'Virgin Central' - which is pretty much an on-demand service. Whether it's worth it's pound value though we'll have to wait and see.

[SoulKiss]

Simple situation.

Sky said if you want Sky One and Sky News you also need to take other channels - and it will cost you more.

Virgin said we dont want to pay more

Sky said ok then, this contract renegotiation is over, no Simpsons for you.

Lets say that the original deal meant that Virgin paid £5/month of the monthly fee to Sky, Sky would obviously rather get the full monthly amount which would be 3 to 4 times that of the £5

Pure capitalistic business acumen.

It doesn't make sense for Sky to sell the channels to Virgin, especially when they can now do phone and internet bundled like the cable companies do.

The Monopily on bundled phone, tv and internet has been broken since Sky got into the LLU Broadband market, and they are now just using this contract negotiation to make their package more attractive.

Virgin putting up "poor little me" notices on the channels is, to my mind, very childish.

David

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Simple situation.

Sky said if you want Sky One and Sky News you also need to take other channels - and it will cost you more.

Virgin said we dont want to pay more

Sky said ok then, this contract renegotiation is over, no Simpsons for you.

Lets say that the original deal meant that Virgin paid £5/month of the monthly fee to Sky, Sky would obviously rather get the full monthly amount which would be 3 to 4 times that of the £5

Pure capitalistic business acumen.

It doesn't make sense for Sky to sell the channels to Virgin, especially when they can now do phone and internet bundled like the cable companies do.

The Monopily on bundled phone, tv and internet has been broken since Sky got into the LLU Broadband market, and they are now just using this contract negotiation to make their package more attractive.

Virgin putting up "poor little me" notices on the channels is, to my mind, very childish.

David

I feel pretty much the same way - let me guess, you have Sky, don't you

[timwilky]

Well as I cannot get an ADSL service, there is no way that I could leave Virgin, even after the pitiful service inflicted by NTL on my excellent Telewest service.

Why should I pay for channels that I don't even watch from sky. Now if Mr Branson will reduce his TV charge to reflect the saving he is making on not providing sky content I will be very happy.

Maybe it's got something to do with Virgin Media advertising that it could provide Sky based programmes for less than Sky.

If I was in Sky's situation I'd be a bit miffed... He was subsidising other services/channels to cover the costs of the Sky packages, fair enough, but to come out and actually say it is not a good business move, especially while trying to negotiate a new contract !!

Branson (for whom I have much respect) tried playing a muscle game with the big boys and lost. Well that's my perception anyway...

I just wish Sky would sort my F***** SKyPlus box out so it stops locking up for 2 seconds out of every 5 !!!

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Simple situation.

Sky said if you want Sky One and Sky News you also need to take other channels - and it will cost you more.

Virgin said we dont want to pay more

Sky said ok then, this contract renegotiation is over, no Simpsons for you.

Lets say that the original deal meant that Virgin paid £5/month of the monthly fee to Sky, Sky would obviously rather get the full monthly amount which would be 3 to 4 times that of the £5

Pure capitalistic business acumen.

It doesn't make sense for Sky to sell the channels to Virgin, especially when they can now do phone and internet bundled like the cable companies do.

The Monopily on bundled phone, tv and internet has been broken since Sky got into the LLU Broadband market, and they are now just using this contract negotiation to make their package more attractive.

Virgin putting up "poor little me" notices on the channels is, to my mind, very childish.

David

[Red ones]

I am with Virgin. I happened to meet the top guy from Sky retail. I think he got the message....



oh - and don;t bother switching to Freeview - Sky pulled out of that too!