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Lost 24

Did anybody who has Virgin Media cable TV have problems with their reception of SKY One last night?

We turned on to watch 24 and Lost last night. The picture, only on SKY One, was very pixelated and kept breaking up and freezing, on top of which we got a running commentary of the action from some disembodied voice. Just wondering if we were the lucky ones or was this a more wide spread problem?

Is this something to do with the wrangle between sky and virgin about the cost of Sky channels on cable? If it is why are their customers having to suffer?
 
Thought I heard somewhere that Virgin had Sky until the end of Feb, could be wrong though ... :hrmph:
 
Thought I heard somewhere that Virgin had Sky until the end of Feb, could be wrong though ... :hrmph:

Yeah, heard the current contract was nearly up. Virgin claim Sky have almost doubled their asking price. Last week or the week before Sky were putting on ads asking viewers to phone Virgin and complain and demand the channels stay on cable. Something has hit the fan, and it don't smell good. Branson's nose was seriously put out of joint by Sky scuppering his deal for ITV.
 
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on top of which we got a running commentary of the action from some disembodied voice.

I have had this before.....But it was on a kids channel...
Its a glitch.....The voiceover is for some kind of hard of hearing (Like subtitles)...But for the blind (Or limited sight viewers).

I have only seen it a couple of times......And when I called SKY a kind bloke explained it to me.

And I have a SKY dish and not cable or anything.

Call Virgin and ask them...I'm sure there is a good excuse in the offing! :D
 
Ooo.....Do they mean us??!!

Well if it was just us, its kind of worrying. One post and your on the Beeb.:rolleyes:

Oh yeah, update.

This morning we got an email from Virgin Media putting their side of the story, but no mention of a date for sky to vanish.

But a hour earlier on radio 4 Virgin had a spokes man, saying the basic sky package might be removed by Thursday this week.:hrmph:

Not sure what channels this might include, anybody got any clues?:confused:
 
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Sky One, Sky Two, Sky News etc....

Anything worth having.

On the plus side, no more having to watch 15 minutes of adverts per hour!
 
Anything worth having.

On the plus side, no more having to watch 15 minutes of adverts per hour!

Of the Sky channels we only watch Sky one, and only sporadically at that.
At the moment there are a few shows we are watching;
lost, 24, battlestar galactica, and the two stargates. Normal geeky stuff :p

Won't miss the constant ads for sure, and the two week long campaigns of the new upcoming show that's shown at the end of every break.

I guess I'll be on these boards more :eek:

Blame the parents, its always the kids that suffer during splits.
I'm seriously thinking of freeview, is it any good?
 
For Virgin Media subscribers the Sky channels have indeed gone... There are details of the situation in an article here.

The piece links to a transcript of a Branson interview that is due to be aired on BBC News 24 over the weekend and it makes interesting reading...
 
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heard the story last night was interesting to say the least.. my granny isnt going to like it tho since she is on NTL and watches WWF wrestling LOL (yes a woman of 60+ an avid fan of WWF its amusing watching he shout at the screen for hours!)
 
Working Lunch - BBC this afternoon, claim that some dude phone Virgin Media, said he wanted to down grade his TV package to the basic one cos of the Sky channel losses and was offered an £8 something discount.

Good on ya dooooda.

Virgin on radio 4 this morning, (me thinks?), said they would not be offering any changes to their pricing.

The guy claimed we could see lost series 1,2, and 3 on Virgin in September. So my question is:

how are they going to compensate me for the loss of the sky channels between now and then. And what about all the other programmes that I am now going to miss.

It suddenly seems like a good little earner for the champion of the people. Fake a dispute with sky, get rid of them and pocket the savings in fees they no longer have to pay to sky.

I don't hear of these savings being passed on to the customers that have lost out.

Why isn't there a smilie with smoke coming out of its ears, or one that has exploded in rage?

I hate sky with a passion, but somehow I feel I've been shafted by a virgin while I wasn't looking.:o

(as in mined for gold) ;)
 
Im glad Virgin stood their ground. Have trust in Branson, he knows what he's doing. Any hope you Virgin media customers have is based in the ITV row over share ownership.

If Virgin Media along with OfCom, can prove that Sky bought the shares in ITV to prevent a Virgin takeover bid, Sky will be forced to discard the shares to...Guess Who?

Then, Virgin Media, coupled with the strength of ITV, might have a chance at fighting back, by purchasing shows to compete effectively with Sky One, which is really what people get Sky for.

It can be done. I mean, Sky One got the crappy show that is LOST.
Whereas a relatively "poorer in finance" Channel 5 got the excellent Prison Break. Virgin Media getting ITV would encourage competition, between the two big boys, which is mainly UK economic policy.

I love Futurama, Malcolm In The Middle, Stargate SG1, and Star Trek Repeats, but I wish they were on other channels. Sky adverts are so repetivive and annoyingly long as I stated previously.
 
Is it true that the new contract Sky offered to Virgin will cost Virgin 3p per day per customer?
This sounds very cheap to me.

Added Note Via Edit:
Does anyone know exactly what is Richard Bransons official role in Virgin Media?

I can't see is name listed in the Board of Directors, nor can I see him listed on the management team.
As far as I can tell, he is simply a minor shareholder, having a 11% holding in Virgin Entertainment Investment Holdings Ltd, which itself has a 10.5% stake in Virgin Media (NTL/TW/Virgin) meaning he more or less has a 1% interest in Virgin Media ( the majority holding still controlled by the old NTL/TW set-up).

I'd be really grateful if someone could enlighten me on Richards role & interest &/or correct me.
 
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Im glad Virgin stood their ground. Have trust in Branson, he knows what he's doing. Any hope you Virgin media customers have is based in the ITV row over share ownership...

If Virgin get ITV. And how long will it take. By that time I suspect more and more TV production companies will be distributing via the net, the whole broadcasting media model will change.

I hope it does happen, competition is good, although ...

Try flicking channels while yours is showing adverts, and ask yourself how come so many others are showing ads at the same time. If competition really was good, why aren't these channels trying to pick up those flicking customers during the ad breaks. And if competition is so good, how come no channels are showing a whole programme and only having ads before and after.

It seems to me, because it is in their interest for the current advertising model to continue as it is, what the consumer prefers is really not the point.

Lost has always been short, I remember channel 4 getting slated for the length of its breaks. American programming is based on shorter length shows. A lot of the channels are doing the same, e.g. Sci Fi. Some times I forget what I'm watching.:o

I've been waiting for an alternative to sky for too long. The only reason I watchED it was cos it showed the programmes I wanted to see. If Virgin get the rights to show these programmes in September fine, but in the mean time who has really lost out. Virgin are still getting the same amount of money from its subscribers. Sky has its ball and probably a new pay per view package starting up on freeview, which I won't be paying for by the way. And us the poor smucks are left dangling in the cold forking out the same money for a blank screen and virgin's snidy comments about sky.:mad:

The BBC report that The National Consumer Council might be making a super-complaint and asking for the digital television market to be investigated by the government. But it all takes time.

Prison Break is :cool:
 
Is it true that the new contract Sky offered to Virgin will cost Virgin 3p per day per customer?
This sounds very cheap to me.

I hope a super-complaint by the National Consumer Council gets the B.S. cleared up, there is so much flying about its difficult to smell spring in the air.

That's worrying, not just cos of the BS but cos its not spring and the trees are flowering.

Can't help with Branson's share options.:drool:

By the way 0.03 x 365 x 3.3million = 35million ish
 
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the more l think about Darkspark's post the more l agree with bransons current action, granted its not good for the consumer... however if he had bought the shares in ITV he would have had the leverage to buy programs like darskspark said could make ITV in to the new skyone without the crappy adverts that re-run every 15mins, in fact l think branson could be considered a businessman however sky well the nicest way to put it is they are gold diggers in it to manopilise the market to their advantage, which maybe their downfall
 
... he had bought the shares in ITV he would have had the leverage to buy programs like darskspark said could make ITV in to the new skyone ...

Murdock buying those extra shares effectively scuppered that deal, if not permenantly then at least temporarily, while he lines up his ducks in a bid to get a foot hold in the terrestrial market.

You have to remember he is not having it his own way with the premiership deals and with the Euopean union breaking up his strangle hold on TV rights. The flow of money has to continue or his channels will begin to fail, cos he can no longer populate them with what the people really want. When he can't do that they will go elsewhere cos sky has nothing else to offer.

The reason sky and its ilk will never succeed is they are too greedy, everything has to bring in the £s. That's why virgin not compensating its consumers bugs me so much, they are beginning to turn into sky. The money is a side effect, its the customers that are paramount. Without them they'll wallow in failure.

We really don't need another sky one, what we want is a channel that has some consideration for its viewers.
 
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