Virgin Media to lose 10 channels
“UKTV’s channels account for over a quarter of pay entertainment channel viewing within Virgin Media’s basic subscription pack. If our channels are no longer available through Virgin, we will be hugely disappointed for the millions of customers who will lose out.”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/19/virgin-media-customers-to-lose-uktvs-10-channels-in-rights-row
Its a Virgin/SKY One moment all over again.... But unlike SKY One, UKTVs channels represent a substantial proportion of Virgins viewing.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/19/virgin-media-customers-to-lose-uktvs-10-channels-in-rights-row
Its a Virgin/SKY One moment all over again.... But unlike SKY One, UKTVs channels represent a substantial proportion of Virgins viewing.
I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
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Comments
The piece you quoted suggested that Virgin’s sticking point with UKTV was that it’s owners, including the BBC, held back the rights for On-Demand watching so that they could, for instance, sell them to Netflix and other streaming services, whereas Virgin felt that the offering was not complete unless they could offer their subscribers UKTV catchup as well as linear.
Without which, they made a derisory offer to UKTV for the continued linear rights, so UKTV rejected that and pulled out altogether.
But, unless the BBC are cherry-picking UKTV’s schedules, all the catchup is available, free, on the UKTV app anyway. So why not, like YouView, just carry that? And with it all free, why would Netflix UK, at least, pay for it?
And I doubt Virgin would or could want to inhibit sales to Netflix US.
But if I am missing something here, please tell me what it is.
VM's argument that this is all about the BBC and the way they sell OD rights is not washing at all. Most users are just miffed that they cannot access/record the linear channels. And apparently the first they heard of it was the same as everyone else, in the news a couple of days ago!!
I know VM are unlike like YouView as they operate a closed network, but theres a limit to what any provider will accept to be on their platform. Which unlike the Sky One and Discovery spat is Virgins problem, as the majority of these channels are available for free on other platforms, including this one. Plus these channels made up 25% of VMs overall TV viewing. Thats a big hit to take.
(i was going to say ‘premature’ rather than ‘incomplete’, but the passage of time from launch to today, when it is still incomplete, makes ‘premature’ somewhat inappropriate)