Virgin Media (former ntl/telewest) set to remove sky channels

[Rd100]

Virgin Media (former ntl/telewest) set to remove sky channels by the end of the month i seen the ad yesterday on sky one where sky are begging cable viewers to call virgin and you can see it on the link below,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOmlGnOwniw

Virgin just dont think the channels are worth it and will be starting there own channel on cable called virgin central which will show loads of hit shows in SD & HDTV the channel will be on channel 119 for cable views from the 20th feb and will use the VOD systems so you can watch the shows when you want,

 

[rolfw]

Hmm, things are starting to get nasty now, the gloves are coming off.

 

[Salty25]

I'm backing Sky, they hold all the cards (as per usual), in this case 'Lost' and '24' amongst others. This is a bizarre move by VM.

 

[Topper]

Even so I never thought I would see the day, brave man is Mr Branson:-worship

 

[2cvbloke]

Even so I never thought I would see the day, brave man is Mr Branson:-worship

I thought he sold Virgin off to NTL/Telewest?

I won't do the Pickle joke....

 

[Topper]

Whilst I agree it was not a straightforward acquisition, being the largest shareholder gives them the power to make discisions like that

As part of the deal, NTL will license the Virgin Mobile brand for thirty years, paying £8.5m a year at a minimum for the privilege. Shareholders in Virgin Mobile will be able to sell their shares at 372p a pop, acquire NTL shares, or a combination of the two. The deal will see Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group as the largest shareholder of the new entity.

Gosh how strange that it was later reported as you said on this

 

[wod]

good for virgin media as sky are getting to much of a hold on digital tv in the uk but the question is will they survive without sky channels as sky movies/sky sports would lose alot of there subscribers i bet

i would gladly dump sky if i could get cable tv as would rather fill up bransons coffers than that murdoch

 

[Topper]

i would gladly dump sky if i could get cable tv as would rather fill up bransons coffers than that murdoch

As 2cvbloke says it would appear that they are someone elses coffers not Richard Branson's, I don't know every report I read says something different on the subject!

 

[rolfw]

I would rather go without than have cable, poor quality pictures, unreliable service. NTHell have always been a pile of pooh, Branson's involvement will have made little difference. ;)

 

[2cvbloke]

I would rather go without than have cable, poor quality pictures, unreliable service. NTHell have always been a pile of pooh, Branson's involvement will have made little difference. ;)

I'll second that, took them 3 replacement STB's to sort out audio distortion (sounded like it was running through an amp set to overdrive!!!), luckily for them the new Samsung box sorted it, until they overcharged me for using dialup.... 'O'-red

 

[Rd100]

It is crap as there is a lot of reencoding etc done i did some work in the past on a few headends, In cardiff headend apart from bbc itv and s4c ch4 which are taken from wenvoe & mendip and then sky movies & sky sports channel which are direct from sky via fiber link the rest of the channels are direct from satellite,

I only have virgin media for the 10mb broadband service as adsl is a waste of time for me as i can only get slow speeds where i am and its cheaper than paying for v-sat,


Its odd i am in a cable are as the houses down the road from me have no cable at all

I would rather go without than have cable, poor quality pictures, unreliable service. NTHell have always been a pile of pooh, Branson's involvement will have made little difference. ;)

 

[Skip Channel]

They installed a crappy old analogue box at my sister's. There was less choice than on Freeview and the picture quality was very bad (even for analogue cable!) To top it off she had the TV, phone and broadband package and was paying more than those customers with digital cable (and the NTL guy even left her a brochure telling her all about the great selection of digital channels available - just to rub it in!)

 

[2cvbloke]

They installed a crappy old analogue box at my sister's. There was less choice than on Freeview and the picture quality was very bad (even for analogue cable!) To top it off she had the TV, phone and broadband package and was paying more than those customers with digital cable (and the NTL guy even left her a brochure telling her all about the great selection of digital channels available - just to rub it in!)

Some cable areas need some serious upgrade work before they can switch to digital, but I agree that there is even less on Analogue than there is on Digital cable, but then again, if your sister ordered Digital, then she should have either been told it was unavailable or had it fitted...

But, that's what NTL were like, let's hope that under the Virgin brand they do better this time...

 

[Rd100]

Some more info today HBO on virgin media

_http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=205406&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=962265&highlight

 

[Skip Channel]

Some cable areas need some serious upgrade work before they can switch to digital, but I agree that there is even less on Analogue than there is on Digital cable, but then again, if your sister ordered Digital, then she should have either been told it was unavailable or had it fitted...

My sister is a really gadgety person and a technophobe at the same time. She has a TomTom, big screen LCD, WiFi, VAIO, Nintendo DS, DVDR/DIVX player and Freeview yet she can't grasp the difference between analogue and digital. I believe they told her she would get analogue but it went straight over her head. It was only when she had the box installed and was presented with a brochure of all the channels she couldn't get even though she was paying more.. THEN it became apparent on her!

She put up with it for about a month but it was really bad. Many channels were "rolling", pictures "bleeding" and NICAM coming and going. Worst cable TV reception I've ever seen, just as bad as reception from a cheapo hotel distribution system.

Hopefully Virgin will get around to upgrading these older cable networks - We need strong competiton with Sky's practices and having this kind of service being offered in the middle of one of the Uk's biggest cities isn't good enough.

It'd be nice if they recognised I live in a cable area (digital cable FWIW) - I'd love to change broadband and phone providers, TV would be a bonus!

 

[2cvbloke]

It'd be nice if they recognised I live in a cable area (digital cable FWIW) - I'd love to change broadband and phone providers, TV would be a bonus!

I think it has something to do with the amount of available connections in their "green box", I know of an Avenue round here where the cable just "stops" at one house, but their neighbours can't have cable, even though they are on a cabled street!!! I think that's one of the things that Virgin will seriously have to work on, especially before they drop all of sky's stuff....

 

[BarMoo]

SKY have threatened to remove their channels if Virgin Media don't agree to a realistic rate for SKY channels carried on their cable network. SKY have already agreed fair carriage costs (from VM) for the two VM channels it transmits via the SKY satellite platform.

So, the story is not as stated in the opening post. VM are the difficult one's - not SKY.

SKY, last week, aired the (cable feed only) TV spot to highlight their dissatisfaction with VM (and, of course to drum-up some sat interest ;-))

The TV spot once again caught VM off guard (seems to be an ongoing theme). [read: SKY is playing with VM like a cat plays with a ball of wool - and they are clearly enjoying every second of VM's demise].

Even the bearded saviour of NTHell has been rattled by BSKYB's very sagacious (marks new word) and talented team of thinkers. And that says a lot to me ;-))))

.

 

[Rd100]

From what i have been told by contacts that work in virgin media (former ntl/telewest) is that behind closed doors virgin want sky one to go along with the other sky basic channels as virgin central will go live in a few days on channel 119,

Which is a tv channel which will have no waiting for scheduled start times and loads of SD & HDTV from the usa from loads of content providers you will just have to go on channel 119 and then select what program you can on the list then it plays back via VOD programs will included shows from HBO also have hit shows like CSI in HDTV,

In the last few days i have watch two movies in HD via vod on my V+HD box and the pic qulity is better than any other movie i have seen on sky movies 9&10HD and better than any thing i have seen on sky box office HD,

Some more info below

http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=205406&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=948626&highlight=

http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=205406&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=960128&highlight=

http://pressoffice.virginmedia.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=205406&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=948628&highlight=

 

[Rd100]

So, the story is not as stated in the opening post. VM are the difficult one's - not SKY .

What are you on about i did not even say thatO-no sky are the difficult one'sU-zzz U-zzz so please do not make out i am telling a lie when you have not got a clue what you are on about,

I just told the truth how it is,

The fact is Virgin Media do not think the basic sky channels are not worth the money sky are asking for them and the current contract for these channels runs out at the end of this month feb 2007 and if no deal is done by the end of the month the channels will be removed from virgin media cable,

What you need to remember aswell is that virgin media have 5 million cable customers which over 3.4 million of them are cable tv customers and if sky one is cut sky will lose 3.4m viewers in cable subs & advertising for that one channel alone,

 

[BarMoo]

you have not got a clue what you are on about,

One should be careful using that kind of language. I am not a monkey - even if I claim to be one.

[edit: put in a unix friendly smilie ;-))) ]

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