General : ESPN, BT, Euro, Premier and Sky Sports news

[muppetman11]

Originally Posted by denphone

Sorry MM but you can bet your bottom dollar that prices will rise even if its through the back door and l think its naïve to think otherwise.

I haven't said they won't increase I've basically said they need to air on the side of caution when looking to increase charges , if subscribers begin to start leaving its going to be hard to replace them in the current pay TV market especially with many cheaper options now available and more flexible packages.

Originally Posted by Dave42

don't they usual increase by about £3 for sport and £1 for rest on sky MM think it be the same and increase by that

Sky Sports on Sky increased last year by £1.00 , your thinking of on VM were it increased by £3.25 I believe.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by colin25

Sky froze their prices two years ago. you make it sound like they increase £3 each year. On that basis, that would mean they increased by £15 in last 5 years. Pretty sure that isn't correct

Some Virgin customers have seen their monthly subscription go up by almost £15 per month since 01st April 2012. Whilst that sounds crazy, it is a fact!

I left Virgin in December when I was notified my package was going up in price yet again. In less than a year Virgin tried to put my monthly subscription up by around £10 or £11

I did read that SKY Sports will be going up in price in the summer months. Last year it was a £3.25 per month increase on Virgin. If I was still with Virgin, and this years increase is similar to last years, it would be my 4th price increase within a 16 month period totally between £13 or £14. That is really pushing the boundaries of acceptability.

[harry_hitch]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

I'd say thats a fair whack of income coming from those people, wouldn't you?

The income may very well be high, but the subscritions are roughly 1 in 5 customers, which was my original point#learntoread . That works out about 20% taking SS, and about 80% NOT taking SS. In my eyes roughly 20% makes something rather a low number. Turning it back to my original point (about the minority of customers complaining) the minority will always ruin it for the majority. Imho, you are the minority in this case!!!
I doubt VM will see too much of the money, as most of the money will probably go to Sky anyway!!!

[Mad Max]

learntoread

I don't need your ****** remarks sunshine! I can read fine, just because i don't share your point of view re sports fans doesn't make me wrong in my assumption that 20% of any business is good business, and any company who lost that amount of customers/income is living in cloud cuckoo land (just like you probably are) if they think that they wouldn't miss it, learn to face facts eh

[colin25]

Originally Posted by Chad

Some Virgin customers have seen their monthly subscription go up by almost £15 per month since 01st April 2012. Whilst that sounds crazy, it is a fact!

I left Virgin in December when I was notified my package was going up in price yet again. In less than a year Virgin tried to put my monthly subscription up by around £10 or £11

I did read that SKY Sports will be going up in price in the summer months. Last year it was a £3.25 per month increase on Virgin. If I was still with Virgin, and this years increase is similar to last years, it would be my 4th price increase within a 16 month period totally between £13 or £14. That is really pushing the boundaries of acceptability.

But what is because of sky, and what is because of Virgin. Not sure you are showing what sky is doing to this.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by harry_hitch

Turning it back to my original point (about the minority of customers complaining) the minority will always ruin it for the majority. Imho, you are the minority in this case!!!

That's pretty harsh. It shouldn't matter if you are in the majority, or the minority. If you are unhappy with something, you have the right to complain. Sports are clearly important to SKY and BT in their bid to attract and retain customers, otherwise they wouldn't spend hundreds of millions on sports rights.

[harry_hitch]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

I don't need your ****** remarks sunshine! I can read fine, just because i don't share your point of view re sports fans doesn't make me wrong in my assumption that 20% of any business is good business, and any company who lost that amount of customers/income is living in cloud cuckoo land (just like you probably are) if they think that they wouldn't miss it, learn to face facts eh

My original point was simply to highlight that the number of people complaining on twitter would be a very minor number of subscribers (probably sports subscribers, which the facts prove), and that ultimately the number of people who would actually leave will be be even less than those who are currently complaining.
If VM do not get BT sports it will probably be over cost. If that happens, and a minor number of sports subscribers (not all 700,000 of them like you allude to) decide to cancel subscriptions, it will still probably cost VM less than the (possible) overall cost of BT Sports.
This will never happen though, as I believe VM will get BT sports.
If you don't like my posts, fell free to block me

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 ----------

Originally Posted by tvtimes

TalkTalk are like camels; they like to keep their heads in the sand.

I applaud Talk Talk for their attitude. They know their customer base and they know that they offer a low cost option for people who cannot afford to/do not want to pay for lots of TV channels. The fact they do not dangle sports channels in front of them, for possible extra financial gain, shows a company which currently appear to have their customers best interest at heart.

Thankfully, I am not in a position to need to use their service.

More power to them in my eyes

[Mad Max]

If you don't like my posts, fell free to block me

Nah, not my style, never been one to runaway from anything, too old in the tooth for that, but your comments are a bit disparaging and unhelpful to any meaningful discussion on this topic!

[coulsontom]

To be fair, I think Sky will see how it goes the next few months.
If they get a lot of BB customers switching they'll prob not increase.
If they see no change or little change, they'll prob put prices up, but lets face it not by more than £3 for Sports & Movies combined.

[jst]

Originally Posted by harry_hitch

"Quite a few" is probably a rather minor amount of the total VM customer base, and I imagine most of that base will have Sky Sports (the figures for SS subscribers is pretty low anyway.) VM will also be aware most of these people banging on over a nothingness will probably never leave anyway. People generally just wanna let off steam and try to scare businesses into action by having a go at the little people who can not change anything anyway.
I have worked for one medium sized and one major sized supermarket for half my life and the number of times customers that have asked me (a relatively lowly grunt on the shop floor) why have we stopped selling/do not sell certain lines is HUGE. I could have retired if they all gave a me pound I tell them why, and the response is often to blame me and take it out on me personally (like it's my idea) and say something along the lines of "well I'll take my weekly shop elsewhere." What do they expect to happen? they must think we (and VM CS teams) all have direct lines to the MD! I try very hard to remember these idiots and always smile knowingly at them as they come back in week after week and fill their trollies, it really does cheer me up on busy days.
Like VM's HQ, the guys at the HQ's of my old/current company know that if they take lines out of any shop, most customers will get a similar line in the shop. A few customers will get the line they want elsewhere and even less will take their main spend elsewhere though.
Having got that off my chest, I simply can not imagine VM not carrying BT Sports.
Sky will start getting jealous soon, Atlantic will soon stop being the most wanted channel for VM customers!!!
P.S, the moral of that story is to be nice to your shop workers. If you really want us to look for something that is off-sale, ask us nicely or you will be unlikely to get it

What a load of S**TE !

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by jst

What a load of S**TE !

Nail on the head............

[Gavin-D]

TalkTalk eyes BT Sport

TalkTalk is in discussions about distributing the BT Sport channels on YouView, as the quadplay provider moves to beef up its TV offering.

TalkTalk, a shareholder in YouView along with BT, Arqiva and the terrestrial broadcasters, revealed it signed up 150,000 subscribers to the IPTV service in the first three months of 2012, taking its total base to 230,000.

The ISP, which provides its high-end Talk Talk Plus TV customers with a free YouView box and subscription if they extend their contract, is focussed on offering more kids, entertainment and movie content – but sees sport as a potentially valuable addition.

TalkTalk commercial director Tristia Clarke said the channels would complement its Sky Sports package, which it offers to subscribers on a monthly basis.

“We’re talking to BT. As Sky do, they will look for points of distribution. The channels won’t be there for launch but we are talking to them,” said Clarke. “It would be a way to drive incremental revenue in the same way we do with Sky.”

She added that 20% of TalkTalk’s TV subscribers had paid for content, with kids show Peppa Pig and Life Of Pi film among the most popular.

TalkTalk also sees an opportunity to beef up its portfolio of live streamed foreign-language channels, beyond the current Star and Star Plus offering, due to the close fit with its international telephone packages.

It is close to finalising a deal with aggregator Thema which distributes a raft of Arabic, African, Caribbean and Polish channels wholesale.

Clarke is also keen to keep innovating and along with the launch of a mobile remote record app, plans to integrate the live streaming channels into the main YouView EPG to boost exposure form their current position in the TalkTalk portal.

“People spend the majority of their time in the YouView EPG and it is a journey to the TalkTalk player,” she said. “Over time we are looking at streaming our live channels through the main EPG.”

Separately, Talk Talk is planning to offer entry package customers a free basic YouView box that does not offer PVR functionality when they renew.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?neww...hp.CsAPYfBZUTY

Separately, Talk Talk is planning to offer entry package customers a free basic YouView box that does not offer PVR functionality when they renew.

wat

[tvtimes]

TalkTalk want to make their mind up don't they?!
One minute they're saying we know our customer base, we're not interested in premium sport. The next they're saying we want to sell the BT sport channels.

Why the back track? They sound like hypocrites.

Is it anything to do with 12% of their market share being wiped into oblivion I wonder?
Or is it down to customers ringing them asking about it or maybe even leaving?

---------- Post added at 19:35 ---------- Previous post was at 19:34 ----------

Originally Posted by Jameseh

wat

I know madness! They're basically stripping away the features that make the box so great. What next? Removing catch-up-tv?!

[harry_hitch]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

Nah, not my style, never been one to runaway from anything, too old in the tooth for that, but your comments are a bit disparaging and unhelpful to any meaningful discussion on this topic!

Really, it seems you just want to ignore my points on a post where it was mentioned quite a few people were threatening to leave. I have tried to counter that statement by saying it is unlikely to be a high number of customers who actually leave.
That seemed to upset you and you currently feel the urge to try and stop me from having an opinion that differs from yours. Anyway, I don't come on here to have spats with adults, so I welcome your reply, but I will leave it there