[Horizon]

Here are a few titbits of news from the UBS media conference on Thursday which was attended by VM's CEO Neil Berkett:

Berkett said 4 HD channels will launch in the next 3 months. He did not say what they will be.

Berkett said 2mb will be upgraded sometime during 2009, to a unspecified speed. He wants all VM's broadband services to be above the average ADSL speeds.

Berkett confirmed he has now had access to Sky's HD channels for a few months, where as previously they were "locked up" by Sky. But not a price he considers reasonable, hence the ongoing review by Ofcom which he believes will find in VM's favour. Berkett stated that the key to HD is sports and movies.

(As I've said before, if VM can get HD channels at a price it likes, it will get them. Clearly what has changed now is that VM now has access to Sky's HD channels and all HD which Sky had previously controlled and wouldn't allow VM access to. But the sticking point, as always, is price. HD is a key subscription driver and Sky will not relinquish this competitive advantage easily.)

Despite what Berkett said, he still does not consider HD a priority. (Perhaps he will when its cheap enough...) He confirmed that once analogue is shut down, VM will have the capacity for 30-40+ HD channels. But as he has said before, VM is still concentrating on its broadband and on demand services where VM can compete more effectively. Although Berkett said that should the market change, he can alter things within 3-6 months to get more HD channels if need be.

Despite what a investor slide said and I've mentioned before, 10mb will not go onto the DOCSIS 3 platform, only 20mb will move onto it and then the 2mb should start to be upgraded around the same time.

Berkett also said that technically DOSCIS 3 is not launching on Monday, that will follow in the new year. What is launching tomorrow is a wideband service. It can only be called DOSCIS 3 when the upstream channels are bonded which VM don't have the capability to do just yet.