Sky remove channels from Virgin Media

Virgin Media customers have lost access to some BSkyB channels after the deadline passed for the two companies to resolve a row over TV rights.

The broadcasters had until midnight on Wednesday to reach a deal which would have allowed cable company Virgin Media to continue showing basic Sky channels. Virgin Media has accused BSkyB of raising its prices too much, but BSkyB has said the higher fees are justified. Talks between the two broadcasters broke down last week. 'Disgusting' Virgin Media said it had made "continued efforts" to strike a deal with Sky but that its rival broadcaster had rejected an offer of independent arbitration. "We're disappointed but not surprised by this outcome," said Virgin Media chief executive Steve Burch. "Nothing Sky have said or done in the course of the negotiation indicates they had the slightest interest in doing a commercially viable deal." I thought this squabble between two billionaires wouldn't affect me, but how wrong I was Ben Anderson, Cambridge

Virgin Media customer John Gullidge told BBC Radio Five Live how he felt when his screen went blank.

"It's disgusting, I'm really angry about the whole situation. I signed up with NTL for the package, largely based on Sky One because I'm a big fan of all the American shows they have and I've just been abroad for a week," he said.

"I've just got back to find I've got no more Sky One."

War of words

Virgin Media - which was formed from the merger of cable TV firm NTL and Virgin Mobile - accused BSkyB of "bullying" and "arrogance".

Virgin Media had warned it would drop the Sky Basics TV package, which also includes Sky News, Sky Travel and Sky Sports News, if agreement on a new contract to replace its current one could not be reached.

Sky One includes popular series such as 24 and Lost, as well as new episodes of The Simpsons.

The latest war of words between the two firms came as Virgin Media revealed that 37,000 customers had left the company during the final three months of 2006, before the firm's rebranding.

However, Virgin Media said revenues had remained ahead of expectations at £1.08bn ($2.1bn), from £916.1m a year ago on a pro-forma basis.

On Monday, the government ordered media regulator Ofcom to investigate BSkyB's controversial purchase of a 17.9% stake in ITV.

BSkyB's decision to buy into ITV was seen by some as an attempt to block a bid for the firm from its then rival NTL.

The government said it had asked the watchdog to advise on whether November's share deal was against the public

Update From Cable Forum

As anticipated, Sky’s basic channels have now vanished off Virgin Media’s DTV network. The cable groups contract with BSkyb, to carry Sky’s basic channels had expired at Midnight. Negotiations between Virgin Media and BSkyb to renew the contract became quite hostile over the last few weeks, Virgin Media firmly believes Sky had engineered the outcome that everyone is now seeing.

Sky One, Sky Two, Sky News and Sky sports news have vanished – the screens on the above channels are now showing a holding screen which shows a statement from Virgin Media, explaining to customers what has happened and that ‘Sky have picked up their ball and gone home’.

Sky’s premier channels, such as, Sky Movies and Sky sports – are not affected and will still be showing to Virgin Media customers that subscribe to them.

Yesterday, in a last ditch attempt to settle the dispute, Virgin Media was calling for an ‘arbitrator’, a third party, neutral to both sides, to review the dispute, but Sky had immediately rejected this suggestion.

Both Virgin Media and Sky cannot agree on a price, Sky is asking for double the price, according to VM. BSkyb say they have spent a significant investment in quality programmes. However, Virgin Media state they won’t reward Sky for ‘apparent’ failure as they believe Sky’s investment has failed due to their belief that Sky’s channels have declined in popularity over the years.

Virgin Media’s chief executive, Steve Burch had stated:

“For too long, cable allowed Sky to have its own way. That’s not going to happen any longer they never really intended to negotiate in good faith.”

Sir Richard Branson had stated to BBC News 24 that Virgin Media would buy the rights to programmes and Virgin Media will set-up channels that would rival Sky One.

Virgin Media customers are reporting some interesting findings just now, Channels such as ‘Sky One’ have been renamed ‘Virgin Central 2’ and Sky News has been labelled ‘Old Sky Snooze’ as the following EPG shot taken by one of our members a short time ago shows…. It’s definitely war between two companies as we have never seen it before….