sky1

[NIX]

they have done it :jawdrop:

virgin has binned sky1

[Angel's vision]

That is because, I heard on the radio today, that they were unwilling to pay the fee's for sky :madtongue. They just took away the service, without letting people know basically, many people have complained, so i'd do the same, it isn't fair, just meddling with the service like that, i'd switch to sky :grin:

[Gollanth]

Hmm. Angry of London here. It's definitely gone from my channel list too - and I see that the monthly fee isn't going to be reduced either! I can feel a letter coming on......

Wish I could change over to Sky, but I'm not allowed to have a dish, so I'm stuck with Virgin for now.

[NIX]

ditto dude

i just signed a year contract a few months ago so im stuck till oct :( so hacked off
i have called to log a complaint

[Gollanth]

I've been with them for years - ever since they were Cable London, which then became Telewest/Blueyonder. I've honestly never had any complaints about the service or channels offered.

I'm not really a fan of Virgin to be truthful, having had a few bad experiences with them in the past, and I'll certainly be writing a letter about this. I deffo recall the price of the TV package going up when we got Sky One etc, so they ought to be reducing it again now. Let's face it, whatever all-singing-all-dancing other channel they offer us as a replacement, we're still not gonna get the progs we want to see are we? :fighting1

[NIX]

yer they are talking about the ondemand section but that dont give us the lastest 24/bones/dresden etc

[Karma]

It's because Sky wanted to charge double the rate to allow Virgin to air Sky 1. If anything Sky are out of order. Why double the rate? Well, I know why, its a good business move. If Virgin don't have Sky then people are gonna want to move. But I just think its really underhanded of Sky to do it!

[Gollanth]

I can kinda understand Branson's point, as he's the kinda guy who hates to be taken advantage of, and I applaud him for telling Sky to go shove their channels where the sun doesn't shine. It's about time some of the big multinationals got a taste of their own medicine.

However, none of that helps those of us stuck with Virgin Media either because there's no other choice, or we're tied into a contract that's going to cost a lot of money to escape from. We're still not able to see the series' we're currently halfway through and now have no way of catching up on unless we buy expensive DVD sets. Grrr!

[Karma]

I read that Sky wanted Virgin to pay £50 million but Virgin were only willing to pay £30 million *shrugs*

[Mr Pointy]

A couple of things on this - first a Virgin press release from today said
In recent months we have made major enhancements to our TV service, including significant discounts on Sky's sports channels. In view of this and the declining viewership of the Sky channels, the withdrawal of Sky's basic channels does not breach our agreement with customers. However, if any of our TV customers wish to cancel their contract, we will allow them to do so at any time up to the end of March. This commitment will not impact our contractual rights to recover any outstanding arrears owing at the time of cancellation.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=205406&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=969668&highlight=

The interesting bit is that we have until the end of March to cancel...I'm hoping that that also applies to downgrading contracts as well...

- secondly, Mrs P tells me that a couple of her work colleagues managed to get through to Virgin customer services and were told that it would all be sorted in a couple of weeks, implying that Sky channels would be restored...this is only a RUMOUR though...so it may be worth a wait-and-see attitude for a couple of weeks...acquiring our fave shows via other means. In my case step-son number two is going to tape stuff off Sky for us but there are obviously less legal methods of "acquiring" eps ;)

[Vilandra]

This has been several years ago now and I forget the particulars, but anyone remember in the US when Comcast dropped ABC or something for what IIRC are similar reasons? It was for, like, a day. And then the missing channels came back.

[Gollanth]

A couple of things on this - first a Virgin press release from today said
In recent months we have made major enhancements to our TV service, including significant discounts on Sky's sports channels. In view of this and the declining viewership of the Sky channels, the withdrawal of Sky's basic channels does not breach our agreement with customers. However, if any of our TV customers wish to cancel their contract, we will allow them to do so at any time up to the end of March. This commitment will not impact our contractual rights to recover any outstanding arrears owing at the time of cancellation.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=205406&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=969668&highlight=

The interesting bit is that we have until the end of March to cancel...I'm hoping that that also applies to downgrading contracts as well...

I may well end up downgrading my package, but changing providers isn't an option. I live in an apartment block and have a specific clause in my lease which prevents me from having a satellite dish on the outside of the building. Seeing as Virgin Media are the only cable provider around here, if I want something other than the Freeview package, I'm kinda stuck. It'd also nean changing my ISP too, which I'm loathe to do as I currently have the fastest connection speed available to non-business consumers, and I know I'm not gonna get the same speed elsewhere - unless I want to double my monthly outlay anyway.

I do miss Sky One though. It was about the only channel I ever watched on the rare occasions I turned on the TV.