There will be a small hardcore number of UKTV fans who it would probably be enough to abandon the Virgin Media service for. But often apathy comes into play, especially if you have loads of other services bundled in like broadband, home phone, TV, mobile and it becomes too much of a hassle for most to go through switching. That's what Virgin will be hoping for, initial outrage, but for the vast majority acceptance. Whether they can bring new subscribers to the service without the UKTV channels is another matter entirely.
UKTV to lose this carriage will reduce their reach, a ratings decline and then the resulting loss of commercial impact and leverage with advertisers.
So not many winners here, but Virgin look to be digging in and hoping for it to blow over, which it may well do.
Depends if Sky think running special deals (including some of reasons people might stay at Virgin) would attract plenty of new subscribers.
Sky run special deals all the time, it's almost impossible to cancel without being offered a retention deal for starters, then there's new customer deals (which one can usually get as an existing customer if you ask nicely enough) and the odd one off promotions as well.
I mean ones that include perks Virgin customers get on better terms to Sky customers.
A definitive guide to who has what UKTV wise as of today.
Sky: All channels, some in HD.
Freesat: Dave, Really, Yesterday, Drama, Home.
Freeview: As Freesat
TVPlayer.com: All channels, but only Android TV devices have all channels through a TV. EE Set Top Box according to their site allows the paywall channels, but not the FTA channels.
TalkTalkTV
BT TV
NOW TV: GOLD only through the Entertainment Pass with VOD. (UKTV Player VOD with content from FTA channels through NOW TV boxes)
Virgin Media: Nothing
To anyone who wants to watch some of the UKTV channels for free online, then the First One TV website is the best place for you. GOLD, Alibi, Dave, Drama, Really and Yesterday are all available to watch for free. Yes, a few are missing, but it is better than nothing. Link:
mod edit: link removed
I have been using the site for the last year and a half, and works well, no issues. Not dodgy at all. My friends in the US and Ireland use it to watch UK channels