Virgin Media, Sky blame each other

Virgin Media customers could find themselves staring at blank screens when they try to watch their favourite programmes from today.

A dispute between the recently-rebranded company and Sky means that some Sky channels including Sky One will no longer be available to Virgin Media's subscribers.

Sky One boasts popular shows including 24 and Lost but these will no longer appear on the service, with both sides pointing the finger of blame at the other.

"Unfortunately Virgin Media have decided to drop these channels from today. This was their decision. As a "closed network" only they can decide what to offer their customers," said a statement on Sky's website, which has also been running as a full-page advert in the national press.

"Up to the final hours we tried time and again to reach a solution, including proposing a way for Sky to retail channels directly to cable customers in a way that would cost Virgin Media nothing," said the statement from Sky.

However, Virgin Media issued a statement to the press suggesting that it was Sky and not Virgin that prevented a deal from being struck.

"We're disappointed but not surprised by this outcome: nothing Sky have said or done in the course of the negotiation indicates they had the slightest interest in doing a commercially viable deal. Their action... reflects their desire to limit consumer choice," said Steve Burch, chief executive of Virgin Media.

The dispute centres around fees that Virgin Media pays to Sky for the disputed channels, which are Sky One, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel. According to Virgin Media, Sky demanded that the payment should be doubled.

Channels such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies are unaffected by the dispute and Sir Richard Branson moved to reassure customers of Virgin Media, previously ntl:Telewest, that they would not be under threat in the future.


"Consumers have my whole-hearted assurance that Virgin Media will not allow this dispute to prevent us from giving them the freshest and most exciting TV service in the UK," said Virgin founder Richard Branson.

Meanwhile, Sky appealed to Virgin Media customers to consider joining Sky to "continue watching these programmes... [to] keep the TV you love."

http://www.virginmedia.com/
http://www.sky.com/

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