Virgin Media News

[gadge]

Originally Posted by TV Boy

The new channel coming to NTL Telewest will be one of the following:

Odds Channel Name
500/1 Sky Three
1/9 UKTV Drama +1
6/1 Nick JR. 2
10/1 Discovery Real Time Extra
5/1 TCM 2 / Cartoon Network Too
25/1 Pop

Give me an name of an channel and I will post the odds on NTL Telewest getting that channel. Go on just for fun

ill go sky movies 10 or tcm2/cartoon network too or the wrestleing channel or whatever its called now.

[TV Boy]

Sky Movies 10 is NOT an new channel on Cable.

---------- Post added at 15:28 ---------- Previous post was at 15:26 ----------

My odds for the wrestling channel is 20/1

[DarkGashX]

Originally Posted by gadge

ill go sky movies 10 or tcm2/cartoon network too or the wrestleing channel or whatever its called now.

Where's the wrestling channel?

[m.massey]

:d I Have Tnt 2 And Cartoon Networktoo Toy Boy

[TV Boy]

Originally Posted by DarkGashX

Where's the wrestling channel?

It the very poor free to air channel on $KY used to show TNA before Bravo2 picked it up.

---------- Post added at 15:32 ---------- Previous post was at 15:31 ----------

Originally Posted by m.massey

:d I Have Tnt 2 And Cartoon Networktoo Toy Boy

My odds for TCM2 & CN2 is on page 4.

[Mister Jack]

thanks nikesh 4 the explaination

[Nikesh]

Originally Posted by Mister Jack

thanks nikesh 4 the explaination

Hey?

[Mister Jack]

on wat epg stood 4

[Nikesh]

Originally Posted by Mister Jack

on wat epg stood 4

Oh loll

[ncfc1902]

what odds will you give me on espn classic sport?

[DarkGashX]

Originally Posted by Mister Jack

on wat epg stood 4

I see you nabbed my avatar already :p.

[TV Boy]

Originally Posted by ncfc1902

what odds will you give me on espn classic sport?

That an good one - 8/1

[ncfc1902]

Originally Posted by TV Boy

That an good one - 8/1

Cheers, i'll have 50p each way then

[TV Boy]

Opinion from The Guardian

Virgin Media needs more than hot air to succeed



Like many people in the UK, I feel as though I know Sir Richard Branson, even though I don't. He's a sometimes controversial entrepreneur, whose woolly jumpers and hot air balloons connected him to a public more used to seeing suits and corporate jets.

Despite the many glitches with his wide and varied corporate involvements, from signing the Sex Pistols, to owning an airline, to launching a cola brand, to running a train service, the entrepreneur and the Virgin brand have retained a peculiar affection in the hearts and minds of the British public. So much so that a year ago, with the merger of Virgin Mobile with cable companies Telewest and NTL, it was decided that the new enterprise should be called Virgin Media.

At the time, Sir Richard, who is the largest individual investor in the merged company, said that once the Virgin brand arrived the legion of problems around customer service "would be a thing of the past". Well, the brand arrived last week, amid a substantial direct marketing campaign, but for many of us the service remains in the realms of the truly dreadful.

It is not (yet) Sir Richard's fault that I'm paying for a 10 mbps broadband connection which hasn't worked for a month. Nor is it his fault that I was lectured at by a rude operative who blustered that the slowness was to do with "peak traffic on the internet" and what did I want him to do about it? To which the response was "give me a refund for misselling me a service which you don't appear to be able to deliver".

This is not an untypical experience for Telewest subscribers. Exactly the same problem was encountered by customers in Swansea where their use was deliberately capped after 20 minutes, because, as an article in the Guardian's technology section pointed out, the impression that there is "unlimited broadband" is not always correct. I would be more impressed by Telewest if I thought I was trapped in some capacity-capping trial, but my suspicion is that it's more a case of technical incompetence. However, when I make my routine call tonight, or tomorrow, it will not be the surly, nasty Telewest I'm dealing with but the shiny, vibrant Virgin. Same old impotent rage, brand new focus.

The competitive heat to be the leading broadband provider is quite extraordinary. Last week Sky produced figures which showed a high number of sign-ups, and a very high churn. These are facets, explained chief executive James Murdoch, of the emerging market for broadband and media services into the home. Sky wants to get rid of its bargain-hunting subscribers (though it's a brave company that adopts a customer-shedding strategy) and sign up people who want more than just the cheapest TV package.

Murdoch says he is sanguine about Virgin, because he believes that Sky offers "better quality at a better price". BT makes a positive marketing virtue out of the woes of customers who have been lured by cheaper deals to less reliable companies. It is at the moment a market full of frustrated customers who are often confused or poorly served.

Sky triumphed over cable in the 90s because it did not have the infrastructure issues that cable had, and its user technology and service were miles ahead. Murdoch will be aware that this battle is about to be replayed and to some extent the market is there for the taking. The unavailability of Sky Broadband will have hindered the company in the final quarter last year - when many people wanted that super-fast service for their Christmas presents, it wasn't there. In the troubled 90s, at one of the many cable and satellite conferences, someone piped up that "the cable industry needs a Richard Branson". Well, now it has one, but the world of reliable network capacity and high-quality user experience needs more than hot air in order to be realised.

Well I'd have more respect for the correspondent if they got their facts right, as Swansea is a legacy ntl area not a Telewest area.

When reporter make obvious errors like this it makes you wonder just how much research they have actually put into the piece and how much is totally made up.