Thanks Richard Branston Pickle. Now I don’t have Sky One! 
Agreed… Murdoch and Branson should go an settle their pissing contest somewhere else and not make me miss the Simpsons.
How long do reckon this will last ?
well the news from the inside is that it’s sky that’s done the dirty here - they wanted virgin to take 3 other channels too - even though they’re crap - Sky Travel and Sky News - but Virgin said no, then Sky wanted to double the price of Sky One - even though viewing is down 20% - and therefore the ad revenue is down… now here’s the really interesting bit… in my last job I worked with all the ad agencies, and my little friend let me know today that Sky have had an ad campaign ready for 3 weeks advertising Sky as the only place to get Sky One… Sky never had any intention of reaching a deal and Branson wasn’t going to bend over and take it - good for him I say - nice to see a British company giving Murdoch the finger.
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My understanding is that this started late last year when Sky negotiated a 75% cut in the price it pays for some channels it buys from Virgin. Viewing of those channels is on the up, but now Sky want twice as much for their channels when viewing is down. The bottom line is Sky is trying to screw Virgin out of the market, just as it is trying to screw up Freeview by pulling Sky 3 and its other channels from Freeview this summer and to start selling its own subscription service using the digital TV system. Sky is trying to buy into ITV which would also give it the huge amount of the Freeview system ITV own to sell through its new subscription service.
Interestingly Ofcom are yet to give Sky the go-ahead to pull their Freeview chanels and put in a paid for service - this is mainly because Sky would have to broadcast them in encrypted MPEG4 - a format that NO freeview box can currently decode… so new boxes would have to be made and it would seriously muddle the simple market currently in operation - ie - buy a box get your digital TV for ‘free’.
The industry really hopes Ofcom says no… and at the moment unless Sky do something drastic then they will.
It goes back to last year when Branson tried to take over ITV but Sky got in there with a 20%(?) stake. Branson complained that they were a monopoly cos they could veto any changes. He is right, it has been happening for years and years. I’ve never liked the power Sky has, but they are the market leader and if you want digital TV you have to go to them. Now Virgin has taken over NTL/Telewest. The first change I noticed was I lost a channel. The Box moved from Supreme up to the Premium package. Phoned customer services to complain and they said there have been channels added, Sky Travel, Film 4 +1, some other rubbish… do me a favor! How about something I actually want to watch. A new channel started on Thursday, Discovery Turbo. Advertised as a channel for petrol heads. Great I though… not in my package 
The news last night said something about a ‘Super’ complaint about this.
At the end of the day Sky can choose to sell what-ever it wants to whom-ever they want. As soon as they see that platform as competition, then they’ll withdraw content to that platform.
BUT ofcom can stop them charging for delivery to freeview - which is a good thing… BUT Virgin Media will have to buy their own content - so I would expect Virgin to launch a new channel in direct competition with Sky One…
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Rival to Sky 1 - But that wouldn’t happen overnight, and nor would it let them broadcast Simpsons , 24 etc. that I reckon SKY would have exclusive broadcast rights for the UK.
you’d think so wouldn’t you… but it’s not true… News International have certain broadcast rights - but for each and every new series they have to bid again… now the interesting thing is that if they bid too high they spark a competition enquiry with the government - ie they’re being anti-competitive… it’s how the BBC gets rights to Simpsons and Ch 4 get the rights to Lost etc…
You are right though - a competitor channel wouldn’t be there over-night - I think it’s more likley that Virgin Media will enhance it’s platform through innovation over content - things like SUPER fast broadband (1gb +) plus they’ll also enhance the on-demand content - so they’ll buy the on-demand rights to 24 and let you watch them when-ever they want…
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you know what, another thing I think I just noticed… Sky 3 has disappeared… but it is a freeview channel. My TV has a freeview box built in so I have to turn off the Telewest digi box to watch a FREE digital channel… how frikin stupid it that! 
sky is trying to pull sky 3 from freeview too…
but ofcom are saying no. for now.
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On Watchdog tonight they had an article on this issue. Apparently, people can get out of their 12 month contract without penalty as a result of this change in programmes but only for this month. Thought you should know. Check their website for more info…
Wow, cheeky bleeders.
It’s funny, in this country advertisers tend never to mention other rival companies. I don’t know if its a legal thing or they just prefer not to give them any press on their money.
Over in the US I noticed they have no problem saying, ‘Company X charges you $20 for this service, we’ll give it to you for $10!’
Good post, I was wondering where my Simpsons has gone?
Goddamn it I’m gonna have to rent the boxed sets now.
Damn Murdock to hell, and may a plague of leeches forever be attached to his puckered, withered behind.
It’s a useful time to phone up customer services and winkle a few upgrades out of them. I got upgraded from L to XL tv package for a fiver a month less than I was paying before! They seem to be a little flexible in their pricing at the moment 
i want to know why they cant just gt on and provide the service that they are offering
why do they have to bitch and act like kids who have lost there dummies
now this bovvers me!!!