The heated Broadband/Digital TV battle between Virgin Media and Sky intensified yesterday with Sky threatening to deny Virgin customers popular favourites such as The Simpsons, Lost, and 24. The dispute has reopened old wounds sustained when Sky boss Rupert Murdoch purchased an 18% controlling share in ITV last year, effectively putting the kibosh on Richard Branson’s attempts to take over the television company under the ntl brand.
This current move is said to be a reaction to many customers switching to the new Virgin Media service, presumably to take advantage of the exclusive Broadband and mobile deals on offer; it is estimated that Sky could lose up to £20 million in profits that would have been accrued through advertising if they pull their channels.
Virgin has said that it now expects to lose basic channels such as Sky One, Two, Three and Sky News and Sky Sports News. The two companies have been having talks to agree on a new deal; the current contract expires at the end of February. Virgin have been looking to renegotiate, although it was admitted last Friday that dialogue had broken down.
As was mentioned in Sunday’s Media Guardian, Branson also thumbed his nose at Sky by going behind their backs and securing a deal with American TV network ABC, the producers of the aforementioned Lost, in an attempt to lessen the damage that the loss of the Sky channels will cause to Virgin’s Digital TV enterprise. This deal will make all three series of Lost available to customers as part of the video-on-demand channel, Virgin Central.
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James said on 28 Feb 2007 at 12:39 pm #
I’m not going to be happy to lose some channels but my current bundle deal is cost effective enough for me to stay put.
However if they lose the premium channels I will have to go to Sky!