Ouch!
Virgin-Sky talks break down
Sky has told Virgin Media that it will pull its major channels from the network at the end of this month after talks broke down last night.
The two companies could not agree on a rate that Virgin Media would pay for the satellite broadcaster's basic channels - Sky One, Two, Three, News and Sport News.
Virgin Media claims Sky wanted to negotiate double the previous rate.
The Virgin Media chief executive, Steve Burch, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning that he'd never heard of a broadcaster threatening to pull its channels, and said that even though Virgin is a rival of Sky it is also a customer.
He said that although he hoped the problem could be resolved, Sky had told them that it would not re-enter negotiations. The negotiations do not include the premium sports and movies channels.
A spokesperson for Virgin Media said Sky had "picked up the ball and walked away".
"The nature of these negotiations leads us to believe that this outcome has been deliberately engineered by Sky in order to suppress competition and coerce Virgin Media's customers into switching to its service by denying them access to the basic channels," said the company in a statement.
"This view is reinforced by Sky's decision to broadcast, at the height of negotiations on February 12, a series of promotions claiming that the channels were about to disappear from Virgin Media's network. This was nothing more than a heavy-handed attempt to exert undue influence on the negotiating process."
Virgin also claimed that Sky's channels have seen a "dramatic and sustained decline in popularity" among Virgin Media customers.
The dispute follows intense competition between the newly rebranded Virgin Media and Sky. In November, Rupert Murdoch's broadcaster bought a 17.9% stake in ITV at a time when Virgin Media - then NTL - was looking to bid for or merge with the commercial network.
A Sky spokesman insisted Sky had not "pulled" its channels.
"We have an agreement that Virgin Media can distribute those channels until the end of the month," he said.
"Virgin cannot distribute from the March 1 if there is no agreement so, sadly for our customers, those channels would not be available."
Virgin-Sky talks break down
Sky has told Virgin Media that it will pull its major channels from the network at the end of this month after talks broke down last night.
The two companies could not agree on a rate that Virgin Media would pay for the satellite broadcaster's basic channels - Sky One, Two, Three, News and Sport News.
Virgin Media claims Sky wanted to negotiate double the previous rate.
The Virgin Media chief executive, Steve Burch, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning that he'd never heard of a broadcaster threatening to pull its channels, and said that even though Virgin is a rival of Sky it is also a customer.
He said that although he hoped the problem could be resolved, Sky had told them that it would not re-enter negotiations. The negotiations do not include the premium sports and movies channels.
A spokesperson for Virgin Media said Sky had "picked up the ball and walked away".
"The nature of these negotiations leads us to believe that this outcome has been deliberately engineered by Sky in order to suppress competition and coerce Virgin Media's customers into switching to its service by denying them access to the basic channels," said the company in a statement.
"This view is reinforced by Sky's decision to broadcast, at the height of negotiations on February 12, a series of promotions claiming that the channels were about to disappear from Virgin Media's network. This was nothing more than a heavy-handed attempt to exert undue influence on the negotiating process."
Virgin also claimed that Sky's channels have seen a "dramatic and sustained decline in popularity" among Virgin Media customers.
The dispute follows intense competition between the newly rebranded Virgin Media and Sky. In November, Rupert Murdoch's broadcaster bought a 17.9% stake in ITV at a time when Virgin Media - then NTL - was looking to bid for or merge with the commercial network.
A Sky spokesman insisted Sky had not "pulled" its channels.
"We have an agreement that Virgin Media can distribute those channels until the end of the month," he said.
"Virgin cannot distribute from the March 1 if there is no agreement so, sadly for our customers, those channels would not be available."
