Just watch it!

I confess, I quite like it on launch, but I tend to flick through to Dave (formerly UK Gold), Paramount, Sci Fi and E4. :)  A nice replacement for Sky One, but Virgin 1 doesn’t fill the gap all too well for some people.

The Riches (Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver) is pretty good and a nice exclusive - reruns of Star Trek DS9 ain’t too bad either - and we can’t forgot the early morning showings of the glorious Takeshi’s Castle! :)  My personal favourite!

They don’t really replace 24 (got it on DVD for my birthday and watched it in a week), Lost (downloaded), Star Trek, Simpsons and so on do they?  Can’t say I’ve really missed them to be honest.

What do you think?

The BBC are reporting that Ofcom are launching an investigation into the paid TV industry after the recent VirginMedia v BSkyB dispute.

Ofcom’s investigation will include subscription and on-demand services across cable, digital terrestrial television (DTT), satellite and the internet.

I think this is a great move for UK residents - as much as we see the drama unfold in the media, there is still lot of stuff going on in the background that can affect us (such as BSkyB purchasing a stake in ITV to prevent a VirginMedia takeover).  Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

TW

A very good recap of the situation on the BBC website - it includes a Q&A session which clarifies a lot of speculation around the topic.

The article shows some good examples of how down n dirty this whole affair has become, citing one example:

“When Virgin Media’s chief executive first refused to pay the asking price, Sky retaliated by showing adverts urging cable TV customers to contact Virgin Media’s customer service helpline and demand the cable TV operator show Sky One.”

The UK cable market is more than just TV channels - both major operators also have other multiple channels of communication in their portfolios and will keenly be looking into the future for their respective advertising businesses.

A solid share of the UK cable market enables each company to leverage their services to both consumers and businesses alike.  Why just advertise on TV when you can also advertise directly to consumers via mobile phones, broadband packages and the like?

It’s a pretty clever way of positioning the “pieces” of their business to take on the online UK advertising market (which has been dominated by Google over the past 2 years, to the detrement of TV advertising spend).  It isn’t suprising that they are getting down and dirty with each other just now over seemingly minor issues.  Any advantage helps in the arms race!

TW

Tired of all the drama?  Sick of two multi-billion pound companies bickering in boardrooms and taking pot shots at each other while YOUR service is disrupted?  Want to know the real story so YOU can base your decisions on FACT and not SPIN?

Well, have your say here and find out what everyone else has to say on the matter - if enough people make a noise then VirginMedia and BSkyB will have no choice but to listen. 

Their marketing teams are working day and night to leverage public opinion to their advantage.  What they don’t realise is that WE can use that same power to leverage the actions and policies of Branson and Murdoch’s businesses.  Tell them how you feel here.

I always find it interesting what sort marketing campaigns companies come out with at short notice and I have to say that overall, I am impressed (as a marketing professional) at the performance of both VirginMedia and BSkyB over this fiasco.

But, one thing that has really got me is that Sky are taking somewhat of an underhand approach to their attempts at poaching customers from Virgin…

On Sky’s page urging users to switch to their service, they state:

“Switch to Sky for just £15″

Which has a nice link to this page, which goes on to state (step 2):

“Call BT and have a phone line installed”

OK, so correct me if I’m wrong, but surely BT won’t do this for free?  In fact the installation cost for a new phone line in the UK can be over £100 and then you need to consider your monthly contract.

A fairly lame effort by Sky to get users to bite onto a juicy low cost, but unfortunately it has a lot of hidden fees.  I wonder what the Advertising Standards Authority would have to say about this?  We’ll find out soon - they already have an “informerly resolved complaint” against BSkyB’s advertising activities this month.

Scott

Huzzah!  And welcome to TellyWars.com!

What’s this all about then?  Well after the recent UK TV market drama involving VirginMedia and BSkyB, I thought it was worthwhile setting up a site to rant about the drama from a consumer’s point of view.

Read this for more infos.

Scott

The basic lowdown

VirginMedia bought NTL:telewest recently, taking over their cable service market share in the UK.  On March 1st 2007, the deal that NTL:telewest had with BSkyB to provide Sky One, Sky News and Sky Travel expired - while Virgin and Sky had been negotiating a continuation of this deal, nothing was agreed upon so all VirginMedia (NTL:telewest) customers lost their access to these 3 channels.

A variety of marketing efforts and press spin was promptly launched by both companies in an attempt to leverage market share from the other.

VirginMedia’s stance on things

On their site, VirginMedia claim that Sky were demanding close to double the fee for access to these channels, “despite the channels falling in popularity by around 20% over the past 3 years”.  As such, no deal was made.

VirginMedia go on to argue that paying these prices would be unfair on their customers (as it would mean price increases) and they didn’t want to see their customers being “ripped off”.  After this refusual, Virgin state that Sky “withdrew their services” (which could be slightly melodramatic as it’s more likely to be a simple contract end).

In addition to this, Virgin claim that Sky “forced” them to accept an 85% reduction in price for Virgin channels such as Bravo and Living, despite an increase in popularity.

Abusing their market share

Virgin have taken several steps to rectify the situation to be able to “offer basic packages at a reasonable price”:

• They offered to let an independent party judge the prices - Sky refused.
• On the 5th Of March, Virgin advised Sky that if they didn’t come to an agreement they would take them to the High Court for abuse of their market dominance.
• This court action will seek to provide basic channels for both providers at a fair price.

Virgin also state, “it’s time to stop arguing and take action”.  Well Mr Branson, that’s why TellyWars.com is here too!

New channels from VirginMedia

To replace the lost channels, Virgin have offered a new free on demand channel that allows users to view a small selection of TV programmes (such as The Office and Nip Tuck) for free at any time.  On top of this, Virgin are releasing music videos onto the service (leveraging on aspect of their unique market advantage) and assure users that they will be adding series 3 of Lost to their on demand service later in the year.