If Sky are listening.....

[NewsreadeR]

We are still open to a reasonable offer as Ernie Cormier, the Chief Commercial Officer, said to Sky tonight.

james kydd from virgin media says:

We are looking at all the postings and thank everyone for taking the time to contribute .The Sky One negotiation has gone on for several months and we are as frustrated as many of you . We believe that open access to channels is in the best interests of consumers but if someone wants to charge a premium out of all proportion to what they used to charge and to what the market rate is , then it is important to not give in . If we did , then it will cause massive inflation from all the other channels which will end up costing people much more in the long term.If Sky were treating this from a consumer perspective they would not be acting in the way that they are .If sky are listening , we are still open to a reasonable offer as Ernie Cormier , the Chief Commercial Officer, said to Sky tonight . Thanks for all the messages of support .


Sky plans to withdraw non-premium channels - Have your say - Your shout - Virgin Media

[NewsreadeR]

I wonder how much Sky want for VM to show these products?

Do we really think Sky are that bothered?

Sky have obviously done this to recruit ex VM customers and to me is an absolute masterstroke. The problem is though, people are now been forced to leave one to go to the other. And no longer can make their own minds up from choice or price, but purely for the content. Which does inconvenience a lot of people.

Sky One has some of the best programming content on any channel and if VM do not pay the price asked by Sky, are open to so many of their customers leaving. Personnally looking at the offers that VM are offering, would not even make me think about changing suppliers, and even if I were, I could not as there is no cable in my area.

Sky are signing up roughly approx 3500 NEW Broadband customers per day, this has to be hurting every other single broadband supplier in the UK. Also to sign up to Sky Broadband you have to sign up to Sky TV and 3500 people a day is just awesome, although it would be interesting to see if these were infact new Sky customers or existing ones.

We can all speculate, but the facts speak for themselves, how much is it for VM to buy the rights? Are they losing too many people, hence the reason why they don't want to pay?

[NewsreadeR]

Sky.com - Switch

I see Sky have designed a nice new website especially to switch from VM to Sky

[yodasarmpit]

Sky.com - Switch

I see Sky have designed a nice new website especially to switch from VM to Sky

Obviously as I work for Sky I might be a bit biased, but you have to admire the ingenuity of the new Switch to Sky site.

[NewsreadeR]

lol

I don't work for Sky and I would definitely agree, maybe the guy / woman who thought about it / designed it would like to do us a new home page?

[TheWhizzz]

3500 a day signing up for broadband me thinks they might be a price war soon for broadband but ain't sky loosing money with there broadband with prices beening so low and whats gonna happen when virgin roll out there 100mb broadband heard prices of between £60. to £90 a month would you pay that for 100 mb broadband??

[fihart]

Sky's tough line on Virgin Media may prove counterproductive. I think they already see themselves in a corner -- isn't Sky Broadband a loss-leader to hang on to existing telly subscribers ?

Sky have risked public wrath on several occasions by outbidding free-to-air channels for sport and entertainment. Taking Lost from C4, leaving viewers stranded halfway through the story, was provocative.

If Virgin looks like failing, the UK Government will act. You only have to watch The Daily Show (More4 20:30 weekdays) to see how Sky's sister channel Fox is reviled by liberal opinion in the USA.


And if the BBC and ITV/C4/C5 withdrew their content from Sky ?

Many users would install an aerial and freeview box and, doubtless, not renew Sky subscriptions.

[intheknow!]

VM are struggling already IMO!!!

the channels are sky's, why should sky sell them at a low price to VM? if they want them, they gotta pay for them.

VM can go on about their 100Mb broadband they are gonna do, watch the price for that!!

you would be surprised what skys equipment can do, thats all i'll say and u dont need a cable line!

VM packages are awful! 35 quid a month for up to 10mb broadband if u live in cable area! no chance!

[Broadsword]

As a veteran of several run-ins with NTL's (now VM) customer service and the way they deal with their customers, I think that anyone who chooses VM over Sky are making a big mistake.

As regards the 100 mb internet access, does anyone really need that kind of speed, especially at that price?

[reddwarfcrew]

The difference between Sky and VM is that Sky is an open platform which means that anyone can lease space of the ASTRA satelite network and the channels available thru the sky set top box.

government regs mean that Sky must allows channels to appear in the EPG at set posn's at a reasonable cost.

BBC etc will always have posns 101 etc regardless of what sky want. BBC also do not use sky's encryptions services, but instead use transponder space that makes it difficult to pick up the signals outside the UK.

Due to this, it means that VM are the monopoly and not Sky as you can only be picked up on cable thru VM and sky cannot chose to broadcast on cable without going thru VM, where as BBC and any other channel can broadcast on the satelite network and available on your sky box without going thru sky.