HD Is BT a threat to Virgin Media

Telly_ · 28-07-2012, 20:35

Well with BT stating they want to be the number 2 pay tv provide in the UK within 3 years and they have been given the green light an budget to do it is VM under threat as an independent company?

BT Went out to spend Â£2 billionon football but only spent Â£700 million an stating they want to be number 2 means they know they can't beat Sky so it must be VM customers they are targeting especially when you consider it's VM Cable areas that are getting infinity first.

Also BT stated the remaining Â£1.3billion will be put into getting content should VM be worried??

carlwaring · 28-07-2012, 20:36

No.* Next!

(* Okay. "Not as yet" is probably a better answer.)

andy_m · 28-07-2012, 20:51

We're not getting infinity first. In fact, Bt currently don't have plans to cable my area at all, according to their customer services.

Chad · 28-07-2012, 21:26

They might have a chance if they:

1. Offer a better PVR than TiVo
2. Offer more HD channels than Virgin (Currently zero!)
3. Charge less than Virgin for TV, Broadband and Phone
4. Start to carry SKY Movies, all SKY Sports channels, Premier Sports, Boxnation etc...
5. Offer a better on demand / catch up service than Virgin
6. Make their content available on the go i.e. via mobile and online
7. Add another 100 or so channels that are current missing from their line-up

If Â£1.3billion can help them do this then yes. I suspect You View will have more customers than Virgin in 3 years time.

It's all good news for us the consumer. I'd love to see a price war!

danielf · 28-07-2012, 22:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad

It's all good news for us the consumer. I'd love to see a price war!

Price war? For me Freesat/view satisfies my telly needs fine. Then again, I have no interest in bid-up tv+3 HD on my iPhone.

Chad · 28-07-2012, 22:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielf

Price war?

Yeah. If Virgin, SKY and BT start offering similar services to one another, and are all targeting the same customer base, then you should start to see some competitive pricing. People who want and like pay TV could be the winners in the long term.

alwaysabear · 28-07-2012, 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad

Yeah. If Virgin, SKY and BT start offering similar services to one another, and are all targeting the same customer base, then you should start to see some competitive pricing. People who want and like pay TV could be the winners in the long term.

I would love to see it happen! But I cannot see them cutting each others throats, they will probably come to a nice cosy arrangement.

heavyside · 29-07-2012, 04:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

I would love to see it happen! But I cannot see them cutting each others throats, they will probably come to a nice cosy arrangement.

I'm sure that's illegal.

denphone · 29-07-2012, 05:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by alwaysabear

I would love to see it happen! But I cannot see them cutting each others throats, they will probably come to a nice cosy arrangement.

What cosy arrangement is that then?.

Sirius · 29-07-2012, 06:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by denphone

What cosy arrangement is that then?.

Indeed

jb66 · 29-07-2012, 07:00

Virgin can compete with bt very easily, they need to make a pvr that's like bt vision, a TiVo over Ethernet rather than coax cable. Have all channels streaming, sky sports 1234 etc.

carlwaring · 29-07-2012, 08:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb66

a TiVo over Ethernet rather than coax cable.

I believe that that is one of their longer-term goals.

**Stuart** · 29-07-2012, 18:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telly_

Well with BT stating they want to be the number 2 pay tv provide in the UK within 3 years and they have been given the green light an budget to do it is VM under threat as an independent company?

BT Went out to spend Â£2 billionon football but only spent Â£700 million an stating they want to be number 2 means they know they can't beat Sky so it must be VM customers they are targeting especially when you consider it's VM Cable areas that are getting infinity first.

Also BT stated the remaining Â£1.3billion will be put into getting content should VM be worried??

VM should be worried. However, I suspect they've seen the statement and are already trying to work out how they can compete.

It may also be why they are throwing a lot of money into installing Wifi points. At least in towns.

VM already have the servers in place for their mobile TV site. I think for a start, they need to make the existing Virgin Media mobile player free for ALL Virgin Media customers.

This would probably be a cheaper way of reaching most of the population than installing new cable.

OLD BOY · 30-07-2012, 18:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart

VM should be worried.

I don't agree, Stuart. BT have a very long way to go before they are anywhere near Virgin Media's offerings.

However, VM will need to factor in the fact that they have a new competitor for the longer term. Let's hope they have a better relationship with BT than they do with Sky!

muppetman11 · 31-07-2012, 13:50

To answer the OP's question , both Sky and VM are under threat from BT's TV service however currently both Sky and VM offer vastly superior offerings. BT currently don't carry any linear HD channels and have very few pay TV channels , however I'm sure they'll be looking to strenghthen their position.