Virgin Media has taken out a series of full page advertisements in the national press giving consumers its side of the story in the increasingly acrimonious dispute over the carriage of Sky’s basic channels.
Under the headline ‘Sky don’t want you to see the whole picture’, the advertisement takes the form of a letter, and is signed by Sir Richard Branson and CEO Steve Burch. The advertisements appeared on Saturday morning (February 24).
The letter says that although Virgin was willing to increase its payments for channels including Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News, it says the demands made by Sky were unrealistic.
In a statement Sky said that as far as it was concerned negotiations were continuing and that it was looking for a successful conclusion.
The message that both SKY and Virgin Media shout about is choice. If you look at the bundles each offer they spread popular items acrosss the bundles so that instead of giving the customer the choice of channels you have to choose a bundle and with the policy you have to get all the bundles to see your favorite channels.
When you choose a supplier, in my case NTL/Virgin great emphasis was placed on the SKY basic package of popular program.
I suggest the regulator bangs SKY’s and NTL/Virgins heads together.
What I as customer want is choice, which I pay large amounts of money for, not two organisations posturing and spitting feathers at each other.
Both sides are as bad as each other, and are manifestly guilty of gross misinformation (Virgin’s press releases imply a lack of understanding of even what channels they’re talking about).
This is a pathetic power struggle between Branson and the Murdochs, with the consumer being ignored.
Perhaps the one good thing that will come out of it is serious attention to Ofcom’s upcoming review of the digital TV platform markets…with the resulting conclusion that the current vertical integration (already existing with Sky, and strategy by Virgin) must now be stopped, as it’s doing serious damage to competition and innovation in these markets.
As Sky have already made it clear they are looking to remove their channels from Freeview, it seems obvious that they are looking to do the same with their 3million cable viewers. What concerns me is that my Sky bill is already quite high, and the increases have come thick and fast over recent years – this refusal by Sky to offer Virgin customers a reasonable price will inevitably lead to my Sky bill increasing once again.
As a Sky customer myself, I think it is absolutely disgusting that Sky are more than happy to shift content and potentially lose money in order to attain a monopoly status on certain content. I am utterly sickened that my friends on Virgin will now have to suffer for another one of ‘Murdoch’s Games’
Personally I’m behind Branson.
He is the one trying to bring prices down. Sky wont sell the channels at the same price NTL got them for because Virgin packages are cheaper – thus potentially taking sky viewers to Virgin.
This would mean finaicial loss for Sky. So now Sky play bully because they want to keep package prices high. It all comes down to greed as usual.
Well said, that man.
All this really shows is the contempt both side have for Virgin’s 3 million viewers when money is concerned. This should all have been conducted civilly and professionally behind closed doors instead of each one crying their case in public like spoilt children.
Wake up Sky, Wake up Virgin. Most important grow up. Sky want to sell their product to Virgin, Virgin want to buy the product from Sky, Sort it out and think not only of your pockets but 3 million viewers. Both sides have got viewers hooked on major tv shows and now threaten to stop them in mid-series, at the moment you are both showing your true colours.