Sky Vs Virgin Media

Post by **Claw** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:25 am

What I've heard up to now is that Virgin wanted ITV, so Sky bought a big chunk to prevent that. Virgin then came out telling everyone that they sell Sky Sports cheaper than Sky do and so in return Sky take all their channels off Virgin.

Has this been a stupid war of petulant tantrums or what?

Post by **Trig** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:22 am

Sounds about right to me.

Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:52 pm

NO it's not petulant tantrums, it's BUSINESS

It's now only a two horse race so each is going to be in it to take over as much market share as possible. Virgin has shown it's hand and now Sky has reacted, plain and simple.

It's what pays a large majority of peoples salaries; one company having other companies/people over to make profits

Post by **Claw** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:02 pm

It's really bad PR on both sides though... makes them both look weak. I wish there was a third option or more.

Post by **Phant0m** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:12 pm

lets make one called GSV tv and make a deal with sky to get all there channels sorted and we can then take over the world

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Post by **Hippy** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:12 pm

I've just been offered virgins new 150 channel tv package for an extra Â£2 a month. I dont want it, but i've taken it anyway.

May call them up and say i've decided to switch to sky as it's the same price with faster internet. See what they say.

Hopefully it's the end user that will cash in on this little fued.

Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:28 pm

Claw wrote: It's really bad PR on both sides though... makes them both look weak. I wish there was a third option or more.

No it's not that either, cos it's got you talking about it

I suspect that virgin didn't want to keep sky channels and that they were just trying to get sky to take them away. Virgin isn't in the business of sharing with others. They tend to like going it alone and domineering whatever market they enter. It's all just show boating and has acheived what they wanted and got loads of people talking as Hippy has done of taking up more deals etc.

Subscription amounts aren't really where these companies make their money remember, it's still alot from advertising and more viewers = easier to sell their products.

Oh and Hippy's post is proof of how great it is for Virgin, he's telling everyone about what a great package he's got, that he doesn't even need. They've just had him over for another Â£24 a year without really trying

Oh and he's probably had a look at the sky deals aswell as he knows that they have faster internet, so sky are also on a winner as people will switch

Post by **Hippy** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:24 am

Yep, Â£26 a month actually.
4meg unlimited bb and the top tv package with free installation, sky is 8meg bb and their equivelant tv package plus free installation for Â£24 a month.

Gonna give virgin a call later and say i dont want their tv unless they can give me something better than sky.

Post by **mcmav** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:07 pm

Hippy wrote: Yep, Â£26 a month actually.
4meg unlimited bb and the top tv package with free installation, sky is 8meg bb and their equivelant tv package plus free installation for Â£24 a month.

Gonna give virgin a call later and say i dont want their tv unless they can give me something better than sky.

Er sky is up to 8mb and its limited. the base FREE service is 2 GB a month my sis in law just got it and get s a whole 1.5 Mbit \o/

remember the SKY price of 26 does not include the 11 per month BT line rental that you also need.

Post by **Eagle** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:54 pm

seen this news item

Sky is calling on advertisers and their agencies not to renegotiate Â£20m in ad deals affected by the pulling of its channels from Virgin, until after its financial year ends in June.

Sky Media's managing director Nick Milligan has been trying to persuade media agencies not to make any "knee jerk reactions" to the withdrawal, they want agencies to hold off until June to see how the situation plays out.

Not all agencies are sympathetic "Sky has taken a strategic business decision to land grab Virgin Media's customers and that has resulted in a loss of audience, which is unacceptable to us on behalf of our clients," Starcom UK's trading director Chris Locke told the Sunday Telegraph. "For the second half of this year we will review where those viewers have gone and move our money accordingly."

Viewing figures show that the loss of the basic channels from the Virgin cable service will see around a 12 per cent dip in audience, based on year-to-date viewing figures.

In terms of advertising revenue the loss of the 3.3m homes is predicted to impact Sky's total sales by around 8 per cent, according to media agency figures. However, on a channel-by-channel basis this impact is more pronounced. For example, Sky One has lost close to 30 per cent of its share of advertising; Sky News 18 per cent; Sky Travel 30 per cent and Sky Two 13 per cent.

Sky is said to be considering strategies to boost viewing figures - and appease agencies and clients - including the possibility of airing live football and quality film premieres on Sky One.

Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:03 pm

On a similar note, my girlfriend has said that she is moving over to sky as due to virgin no longer having sky 3 (I think) they no longer have the shows that she wants to watch. So I'd imagine that a fair few people will also switch over just like her to follow popular shows etc.

It's certainly an interesting time for customers , as Hippy said, certainly seems as if the customer is winning in this little battle

Post by **Hippy** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:21 pm

Even freeview has sky 3 in the evenings, Cant remember which channel switches over, something rubbish.
Sky 3 only ever shows repeats of friends anyway.

My virgin media box is set to be installed tomorrow morning, but i A: have nowhere to put it, dont want it on my main tv and B: wont be in.

There is a small catch in that agreeing to have the media box, i agree to another 18 months contract.
Hmmm, think i will cancel it and see how it plays out.

Dont really care either way but would definitely not get sky, and definitely wouldn't be seen dead with anything from BT.

Post by **mcmav** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 4:43 pm

yeah sky three on freeview till summer when sky pull its channels from freeview aserll as it plans to launch its own paytv on DTT

I still think Virgin will get sky channels back as sky aint got the volume of virgon customers to change as it had hoped for.

I was in Makro and guy was pushing sky and sky broadband. I said no ta I got cable he said yes but you wont have sky one

I said that that was true but I hardly watched sky one so it was no biggie. He went on about free BB with them. So I said yeah free but I'd be 100 quid to get BT phone line installed so not so free he said yes but you'l get 8 Mbit I said no from where I am from exchange I'll get about 1-2 mbit tops. to end the conversation I said if you can give me the phone the telly and the BB with no dish I'll take it