VIRGIN GET F****D
Oh dear.
Not a good start for Virgin Media, barely a month since they took over NTL cable. Sky have now pulled the plug on most of their channels carried by Virgin, meaning 3.3 million subscribers have lost Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel.
It's particularly bad news for fans of non-terrestrial TV shows such as 24, Lost and Battlestar Galactica, all of which fail to transfer to terrestrial TV later in the year. Still, I suppose it's good news for DVD retailers.
Virgin, who were paying £25m for the excised channels, claim Sky were unfairly doubled their asking price, in a calculated move to cripple their competitor. Sky deny this, claiming instead that expensive imports like Lost and 24, together with their commitment to Sky+ and HD, had forced the increase.
I've been a cable subscriber for 18 months now. When Virgin replaced NTL I had high hopes, primarily because of Virgin's new ideas, such as a viable Sky+ alternative with their Virgin+ digibox.
The loss of Sky One, in particular, is a major blow for cable subscribers on a Basic Package, as the differences between Freeview and a basic Virgin subscription is increasingly negligible.
It all raises some interesting questions:
1. Is Virgin worth the cash if you can get most of the channels FREE elsewhere?
2. Will Virgin lower their charges because of Sky's walkout?
3. What will Virgin spend their saved £25m on?
4. Sky are now £25m poorer as a result of this. If they honestly did need approx £50m to pay for their services, how are they going to recoup that now? Will Sky customers see a rise in their charges to cover the loss?
5. If this is a cynical ploy by Sky to get Virgin customers to jump ship to them? If even a fraction of Virgin's £3.3m subscribers join Sky, each paying approx £30 per month, that's still a lot of money per annum!
6. Will the loss of popular shows like 24, Lost, Battlestar Galactica and The Simpsons lead to an increase in illegal internet downloads amongst Virgin customers?
7. If customers stay loyal to Virgin, will Sky be forced to reverse their decision at the next opportunity? Surely £25m is better than £0?
Personaly, I'm a basic package Virgin subscriber. I watch Sky One a little bit and Sky News occassionally. But, truth is, I download 24, Lost and BSG off the 'net, so the loss of Sky One doesn't really effect me.
Virgin is still far more competitive than Sky in pricing. I pay £30 per month for 2MB broadband, basic package TV and phone line (with excellent rates). Essentially I pay about £10 per month for my TV and that justifies the additional channels not available on Freeview.
Still, it's a terrible turn of events for those unable/unwilling to download TV illegally, particularly coming mid-season for serialized shows like Lost and the addictive 24.
UPDATE: Yesterday, Sky's flagship entertainment channel, Sky One, had a 1.4% multichannel share for the day, compared with an average of 1.6% for Thursdays over the past three months. Sky News was down to 0.4%, compared with a three-month Thursday average of 0.6%; while Sky Sports News was also at 0.4%, compared with an average of 0.5%.
Full article: http://media.guardian.co.uk/overnights/story/0,,2025366,00.html
