[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I would have thought that BT would want to continue the arrangement because it is likely to bring in more VM viewers than would otherwise be the case. They could lose income without such a deal.

As for Virgin, it is certainly a plus in attracting subscribers, who do not pay more than the Full House to get BT Sport. However, it must be fairly expensive for Virgin, and they will be conscious of the fact that that viewers are upset with all these price rises. There is also a resentment that non sports viewers are having to contribute so much towards BT's sports channels.

I see a potential problem if the wholesale deal is not renewed. BT like to handle subscription payments themselves (look at the upset this caused with Sky) and I am not sure that Virgin would allow this either, in which case there would be no BT Sports at all on cable. However, maybe there's a way around it: after all, we pay directly to Netflix without any problems.

---------- Post added at 08:02 ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 ----------


Why do you think that, theone? AMC do not benefit from many subscribers, being only on BT, with Sky viewers having to subscribe to BT Sports or their broadband service, and I would have thought that AMC would want to have more of the UK population paying for it.

I suppose that AMC could cease the UK channel's exclusivity when their existing deal with BT expires and make their offerings available through alternative streaming services. I would find that perfectly acceptable.

I'm going on the basis of VM cheesing of BT a while back unless they've now kissed and made up.