More on the Sky/Virgin toy-throwing saga

[BGonaSTICK]

Following Branson's move to pull derogatory references to Sky channels from his Virgin Media platform, Sky says it "applauds" the decision.

Following the removal of Sky basic channels from the cable platform on Wednesday night, Virgin Media replaced the channels with titles such as "Sky Snooze try BBC" instead of Sky News, and "Old Sky Sports Snooze" in reference to Sky Sports News.

Branson announced that he ordered the removal of the on-screen jibes, adding he had been unaware of the spoof channel name manoeuvre. He told the The Guardian: "I have asked them to take it down. We do not mean any disrespect to Sky News. I think it is a very good news channel."

A Sky spokesman said: "Sky applauds Sir Richard Branson’s decision to halt Virgin Media’s childish mocking of Sky News and our other basic channels."

"After Virgin Media’s negative comments about the quality of our channels in recent days, it is refreshing to hear Sir Richard’s praise for Sky News as a 'very good news channel' and we call on him to take action to restore our basic channels to Virgin Media customers."

But Sky has again called on Virgin Media to allow it to offer its channels to cable customers direct.

"If Virgin Media truly believes they are not worth the asking price of 3p per customer per day, Sky invites Virgin to provide access to its platform so that we can retail our channels directly to customers," the statement added.

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Virgin should take a leaf out of Sky's PR book, because at the moment, Sky are exploiting every twist and turn of this situation. The direct marketing offer is pure genius. VM must re-instate these channels if they are to stop the exodus to Sky's satellite platform, and they must do it quickly IMO.

[BGonaSTICK]

Virgin Media will allow customers in to cease subscribing to the company's services and switch to another provider even if they are locked into a contract.

The announcement comes after the National Consumer Council, which has statutory powers to alert regulators to issues it deems to be contrary to the interests of consumers, threatened to intervene in the ongoing carriage dispute between Virgin and Sky. This afternoon, Virgin said that it "strongly" agreed with the NCC's assertion that "there are flaws in the UK pay TV market which are harming the interests of consumers," and added that "an investigation is warranted."

The company emphasised that "the withdrawal of Sky's basic channels does not breach our agreement with customers" but said that it will allow customers to cancel their contracts "at any time up to the end of March."

"Virgin Media wants to do the right thing by its customers and resolve this dispute, as well as its underlying causes," said Virgin Media CEO Steve Burch. "We think our customers will quickly recognise that the improvements we've recently made to our TV service, together with other exciting enhancements we've got in the pipeline, make Virgin Media's TV service the most comprehensive and exciting in the UK. Over the next month, however, if they don't agree, we will not use technical legalities to stand in the way of them switching to another service. Among both our customers and the public as a whole, we believe there is a significant groundswell of support for our decision to stand up to Sky: we are determined to ensure it is the customer that benefits from our determination to do so."

Virgin have also announced that a "major movie promotion" will be made available to existing TV customers "to address any concern over the loss of Sky's channels."

[BGonaSTICK]

Sky CEO James Murdoch has criticised Virgin Media for what he claims is an attempt to turn the cable operator into a "victim".

Speaking to the Telegraph, Murdoch said that Virgin Media's "fairplay" PR campaign "was always part of the plan" and is aimed at turning "a pretty big business in residential telephony and the biggest business, or it was until the last quarter, in residential broadband into a victim to try and get public support."

Murdoch's comments came as part of a wide-ranging critique on the influence of regulation in the UK's media industry. In particular, he branded an investigation into Sky's acquisition of 17.9% in ITV - a move heavily criticised by Virgin Media, then NTL, which was itself seeking a merger with the broadcaster - as "nonsense" that would result in "squandered human enterprise".

"Britain is a great country to do business in but it is also extremely frustrating when the levers of the regulatory burden are so consistently manipulated for competitive ends," he told the paper.

Over the weekend, Sky's financial officer Jeremy Darroch told the Mail on Sunday that Ofcom should investigate whether Virgin should be forced to "open" its network, a suggestion rebuffed by Virgin who said that the matter had already been looked at by the regulator twice.

[nanochickin]

Virgin Media will allow customers in to cease subscribing to the company's services and switch to another provider even if they are locked into a contract.

Is this definate Stick? Its just the chance i've been waiting for to get rid of their TV & Telephone package

[BGonaSTICK]

That's what VM have said AFAIK. The NCC basically said that it's unfair for VM to remove the channels but not drop the price, so they must allow customers to leave.

If you want to take them up on this, you'd be wise to find the official source of this statement I guess.

[Gav]

A great solution would be for FOX to offer The Simpsons and Lost (I think Lost is a FOX program?) direct to Virgin Media and let them put them on their on Demand service. Or, better yet have FOX here in the UK.

[nanochickin]

Have tried to ring Televest (VM) to cancel my subscription and i cant get through

People must be leaving i droves I'm going to try and get a better package for the c@ble box which is now in the bedroom and hopefully lose the phone service. Hopefully i will get the 2 for £20 deal on my TV and Broadband out of them

If it doesn't work out i will chuck the lot

Anyone recommend a good isp :|



Nano