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Virgin plans Sports News channel...and sky loses massive audience


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Virgin Media and Setanta Sports are reportedly in talks to launch a rival channel to Sky Sports News.

 

The move follows the removal of Sky Sports News from the Virgin Media platform after carriage negotiations for Sky's basic channels between BSkyB and Virgin broke down.

 

According to industry sources, discussions are in the early stages, but are going on at "a senior level."

 

Virgin Media has said it wants to build Virgin Sports as a separate brand, and without Sky Sports News, the company needs to ally with an established partner to make that happen.

 

Setanta currently has the rights to 46 Premiership matches for the next season and has recently launched a golf channel. Setanta already supplies Bravo, owned by Virgin Media, with coverage of Italian football.

 

Virgin also owns the online download rights to the next three season’s worth of near-live Premiership matches.

 

and...

 

Pay-TV operator BSkyB has seen the audience share of its premier channels plummet since it withdrew them from the Virgin Media cable platform last month, new figures show.

 

Sky News has fallen by 23 per cent in the first two weeks of March compared with the same period last year. Sky One, which screens Lost and The Simpsons, has registered a more dramatic decline, dropping by 34 per cent so far this month, according to industry sources.

 

A significant decline was inevitable after Sky pulled the channels following a dispute over the amount Virgin pays for them. But the extent of the fall will horrify advertisers, who are likely to demand lower rates to compensate. Sky News now has a 0.36 per cent share and Sky One's stands at 1.22 per cent.

 

Last week, media regulator Ofcom announced a wide-ranging inquiry into the pay-TV sector that will examine whether Sky is abusing its market dominance, as its competitors claim.

 

Industry sources claim that will delay the launch of Sky's new Freeview service, which would give viewers the option of subscribing indefinitely to some of its pay-TV channels, including Sky News and Sky One, for a small monthly fee.

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Branson is the daddy, he'll probably own the PL in a couple of years never mind broadcast it

 

When I rang up to cancel the tv just now the bloke was adamant the SSN would be back soon. Told him I didn't give a toss since it's on freeview anyway and I currently seem to be paying £5.50 a month for E4.

 

I've not seen it anywhere, but are Virgin upgrading everyones internet for free in may? Everyone I know who's rang up has been bumped to the next package....from May. Why not straight away?

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Hmm, might give them a ring then if I can get a better package.

 

I can imagine what's going to happen though with their sports stuff, some prem matches for one season follwed by "They're charging us too much for them, we're not going to show you the PremierSHIT anymore, the FA don't want you to watch English FootBORE so we're giving you a choice of Gaelic football matches on demand instead! It's like having your own teleportation chamber where you can beam yourself to any ground and any time you want at the press of a button, much better than Sky!"

Edited by BlueStar
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Virgin have also told Sky they want the matter resolved by the 3rd of April or they're going to take legal action. Fair play to them I say.

 

 

Aye in the long term more competition will be better, might well have more short term painful consequences though.

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Branson is the daddy, he'll probably own the PL in a couple of years never mind broadcast it

 

When I rang up to cancel the tv just now the bloke was adamant the SSN would be back soon. Told him I didn't give a toss since it's on freeview anyway and I currently seem to be paying £5.50 a month for E4.

 

I've not seen it anywhere, but are Virgin upgrading everyones internet for free in may? Everyone I know who's rang up has been bumped to the next package....from May. Why not straight away?

 

When we complained about the loss of the Sky channels they gave us a 20 quid discount to stay with them, and this is a permanent deal! So for £39 a month we get all the channels except the Movies, boadband, and the telephone. Seems like a good deal to me. Best of all if they get Sky one and SSN back we'll get this too.

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My mam rang up and got their VIP package, V+, the sports and movies and a broadband upgrade. And all for a chunk less than she had previously been paying.

 

They've had to delay the installation of V+ by a month though cos they've run out of boxes.

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Branson is the daddy, he'll probably own the PL in a couple of years never mind broadcast it

 

When I rang up to cancel the tv just now the bloke was adamant the SSN would be back soon. Told him I didn't give a toss since it's on freeview anyway and I currently seem to be paying £5.50 a month for E4.

 

I've not seen it anywhere, but are Virgin upgrading everyones internet for free in may? Everyone I know who's rang up has been bumped to the next package....from May. Why not straight away?

 

When we complained about the loss of the Sky channels they gave us a 20 quid discount to stay with them, and this is a permanent deal! So for £39 a month we get all the channels except the Movies, boadband, and the telephone. Seems like a good deal to me. Best of all if they get Sky one and SSN back we'll get this too.

 

Did you get V+ too? You should have - they gave it to my mam for nowt.

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Branson is the daddy, he'll probably own the PL in a couple of years never mind broadcast it

 

When I rang up to cancel the tv just now the bloke was adamant the SSN would be back soon. Told him I didn't give a toss since it's on freeview anyway and I currently seem to be paying £5.50 a month for E4.

 

I've not seen it anywhere, but are Virgin upgrading everyones internet for free in may? Everyone I know who's rang up has been bumped to the next package....from May. Why not straight away?

 

When we complained about the loss of the Sky channels they gave us a 20 quid discount to stay with them, and this is a permanent deal! So for £39 a month we get all the channels except the Movies, boadband, and the telephone. Seems like a good deal to me. Best of all if they get Sky one and SSN back we'll get this too.

 

Did you get V+ too? You should have - they gave it to my mam for nowt.

 

No, but I'm paying less than 40 quid and get the football etc. How much is she paying? Hopefully if I upgrade to it I can take my 20 quid discount, which is itemized on the bill.

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Branson is the daddy, he'll probably own the PL in a couple of years never mind broadcast it

 

When I rang up to cancel the tv just now the bloke was adamant the SSN would be back soon. Told him I didn't give a toss since it's on freeview anyway and I currently seem to be paying £5.50 a month for E4.

 

I've not seen it anywhere, but are Virgin upgrading everyones internet for free in may? Everyone I know who's rang up has been bumped to the next package....from May. Why not straight away?

 

When we complained about the loss of the Sky channels they gave us a 20 quid discount to stay with them, and this is a permanent deal! So for £39 a month we get all the channels except the Movies, boadband, and the telephone. Seems like a good deal to me. Best of all if they get Sky one and SSN back we'll get this too.

 

Did you get V+ too? You should have - they gave it to my mam for nowt.

 

No, but I'm paying less than 40 quid and get the football etc. How much is she paying? Hopefully if I upgrade to it I can take my 20 quid discount, which is itemized on the bill.

 

What she pays is complicated slightly by the fact that she has two extra phonelines etc - they have a home office that they run a business from. I think they're paying about £80 for three phonelines with the talk anytime thing on, 10 meg broadband, and full package TV with V+.

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Branson is the daddy, he'll probably own the PL in a couple of years never mind broadcast it

 

When I rang up to cancel the tv just now the bloke was adamant the SSN would be back soon. Told him I didn't give a toss since it's on freeview anyway and I currently seem to be paying £5.50 a month for E4.

 

I've not seen it anywhere, but are Virgin upgrading everyones internet for free in may? Everyone I know who's rang up has been bumped to the next package....from May. Why not straight away?

 

When we complained about the loss of the Sky channels they gave us a 20 quid discount to stay with them, and this is a permanent deal! So for £39 a month we get all the channels except the Movies, boadband, and the telephone. Seems like a good deal to me. Best of all if they get Sky one and SSN back we'll get this too.

 

Did you get V+ too? You should have - they gave it to my mam for nowt.

 

No, but I'm paying less than 40 quid and get the football etc. How much is she paying? Hopefully if I upgrade to it I can take my 20 quid discount, which is itemized on the bill.

 

What she pays is complicated slightly by the fact that she has two extra phonelines etc - they have a home office that they run a business from. I think they're paying about £80 for three phonelines with the talk anytime thing on, 10 meg broadband, and full package TV with V+.

 

Got to admit I fancy a hard drive, the VCR is seeming a bit antiquated!

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Don't be sucked in by all these tales of people getting this and that for silly amounts of money. When i rang up and threatened to leave and quoted some of the prices the mackems on SMB said they were getting stuff for she basically said that it was impossible as they didn't do deals for taht amount of money and they were all set packages.

 

She did knock my five pound a month charge for non direct debit off though. I think what you'll find is when people start getting their bills in they'll find their actually being charged for their V boxes and additional boxes etc what they they were getting for nowt.

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They are offering large discounts and this is shown on the bill as a loyalty discount. I think the deal they offer you depends on how long you have been with them and how much they value your custom.

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Don't be sucked in by all these tales of people getting this and that for silly amounts of money.

 

Well my mam, who was previously on basic - no sports, no movies, no V+ - got all of those added and her broadband upgraded with a sizeable discount on what she was previously paying. She did quote the stuff on the mackem site and was told that that deal was impossible, so I think you're right, there's some exaggerating going on there, but there are definitely advantages to ringing up and telling them you're leaving.

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Don't be sucked in by all these tales of people getting this and that for silly amounts of money.

 

Well my mam, who was previously on basic - no sports, no movies, no V+ - got all of those added and her broadband upgraded with a sizeable discount on what she was previously paying. She did quote the stuff on the mackem site and was told that that deal was impossible, so I think you're right, there's some exaggerating going on there, but there are definitely advantages to ringing up and telling them you're leaving.

 

Rang up again and kicked up a stink and got £12.50 a month off for a year

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Don't be sucked in by all these tales of people getting this and that for silly amounts of money.

 

Well my mam, who was previously on basic - no sports, no movies, no V+ - got all of those added and her broadband upgraded with a sizeable discount on what she was previously paying. She did quote the stuff on the mackem site and was told that that deal was impossible, so I think you're right, there's some exaggerating going on there, but there are definitely advantages to ringing up and telling them you're leaving.

 

Rang up again and kicked up a stink and got £12.50 a month off for a year

 

You see? They tried to take advantage of you first time, but you showed THEM! ;)

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Don't be sucked in by all these tales of people getting this and that for silly amounts of money.

 

Well my mam, who was previously on basic - no sports, no movies, no V+ - got all of those added and her broadband upgraded with a sizeable discount on what she was previously paying. She did quote the stuff on the mackem site and was told that that deal was impossible, so I think you're right, there's some exaggerating going on there, but there are definitely advantages to ringing up and telling them you're leaving.

 

Rang up again and kicked up a stink and got £12.50 a month off for a year

 

You see? They tried to take advantage of you first time, but you showed THEM! ;)

 

I've been on to them again tonight as I had doubts as to whether i was actually getting 10MB B/B, law and behold, I'm not, only 4mb, something to do with a fault that they're going to have to find and sort out so as a good will gesture they wont be charging me for my B/B until June....result

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Don't be sucked in by all these tales of people getting this and that for silly amounts of money.

 

Well my mam, who was previously on basic - no sports, no movies, no V+ - got all of those added and her broadband upgraded with a sizeable discount on what she was previously paying. She did quote the stuff on the mackem site and was told that that deal was impossible, so I think you're right, there's some exaggerating going on there, but there are definitely advantages to ringing up and telling them you're leaving.

 

Rang up again and kicked up a stink and got £12.50 a month off for a year

 

You see? They tried to take advantage of you first time, but you showed THEM! ;)

 

I've been on to them again tonight as I had doubts as to whether i was actually getting 10MB B/B, law and behold, I'm not, only 4mb, something to do with a fault that they're going to have to find and sort out so as a good will gesture they wont be charging me for my B/B until June....result

 

I think EVERYONE gets a free upgrade* in May and they're just placating you till then

 

*2Mb -> 4Mb

4Mb -> 10Mb

10Mb -> 20Mb

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