Virgin Digital v Sky

Recently our local cable company Telewest merged with NTL and then Virgin Media stepped in and took over.I thought this was a good thing at the time as Telewest had a bit of a debt problem and while they were keeping their heads above water it meant they were not progressing. The Virgin Brand has a great reputation despite a few set backs (Virgin Rail for example) so I was expecting an improvement in the cable service we were getting. And that's the problem.

Virgin Media has got a little bit too big and Sky don't like it one little bit. So much so they asked double the money to renew the free to view SKY channels on cable, such as SKY One. Virgin quite rightly refused to pay because they would have had to pass it onto me, the consumer, and that's not what Virgin are about. Sky meanwhile have been shouting (taking out full page ads in the national press) that they want fair return on the money they spend on buying shows. Sky are also switching off the feed to Freeview. They left it there long enough so that lots of people have got used to watching Lost and 24 etc. and now that it won't be available for free where were those people going to get their US TV fix? This is big bully tactics and its going to be interesting to see what else happens in this spat as Virgin Media own quite a bit of UK TV such as Living TV.

Sky Movies and Sky Sports are still available on cable but that's because they are premium channels and you have to pay more. Apparently Virgin will pick up Lost later in the year which is when I will start watching it again and its about the only thing I am going to miss from SKY.

Update!

Just been looking at the RNS feed for SKY because News UK Nominees Limited is the registered holder of the shares in British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BSkyB).

But hang on: BSkyB Holdco, Inc. is the beneficial owner and
holder of voting rights in BSkyB. Ok so who owns BSkyB?

BSkyB Holdco Inc. is controlled by Sky Global
Holdings, LLC, of course.

But that is controlled by Sky Global Operations, Inc,
which is controlled by Sky Global Networks, Inc.,
which is controlled by Sky Global Holdings, Inc,
which is controlled by News America Incorporated,
which is controlled by News Publishing Australia Limited,
which is controlled by News Corporation (parent of group).

So what's my point? I don't really have one except I would not trust anyone who had this sort of set up for their company. Smells like a tax evasion pyramid scheme though of course there is no evidence to suggest that anything is amiss. Bit like Fox News and the truth.

Posted by Simon at March 2, 2007 1:32 PM

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