Well I've just came off the phone to a Virgin advisor who said that UKTV are giving their On Demand content to Netflix.
I challenged him on it and the got told that he works for the company therefore what he says is factually correct. Finally managed to give my 30 day notice so my last day will be the 21st of August and quite frankly, good riddance.
Never would I think I'd be in agreement with Virgin's rep, but they're spot on about UKTV's policy of not allowing VM to access their FTA channels for free and why the pay output then ends up on a Freeview channel.
BBC just had their business correspondent on talking about it, claiming that UKTV pay Virgin to carry their channels- it's the other way round! Rightly pointing out it will financially hit UKTV and make them less desirable for their advertisers though. After all, their pay channels have just lost nearly a third of their potential audience.
BBC just had their business correspondent on talking about it, claiming that UKTV pay Virgin to carry their channels- it's the other way round! Rightly pointing out it will financially hit UKTV and make them less desirable for their advertisers though. After all, their pay channels have just lost nearly a third of their potential audience.
UKTV
do
pay VM to carry their channels, but they get a return on the subscription ones. Every platform has a carriage cost. 'Free to Air' doesn't mean 'Free to Broadcast' for the broadcaster.
I am rather surprised that VM are getting away with peddling these 'replacement channels', when many of them are merely being duplicated from elsewhere on the EPG.
I am rather surprised that VM are getting away with peddling these 'replacement channels', when many of them are merely being duplicated from elsewhere on the EPG.
They haven't even moved the channels either, they're still in their old places as well as the new ones, so they appear twice. In ZooMoo's case it's on the EPG in three places! It's all a joke really. Not sure how they can consider them replacements when they're channels we already have, or acting as if having the same channel in two places is actually two different channels.
Of course the replacement channels aren’t meant to be like-for-like, but I imagine for most it will hold them over until the channels return. Anyone who is really angry at the UKTV channels going off the platform isn’t going to be persuaded by any kind of replacement. I imagine it’s also preferable to having a huge chunk of the EPG as “This channel is no longer available” barker channels (particularly 124-131).
Obviously they're not like for like, 5 hours of Neighbours in place of Gold, sports in place of Dave, a pre-school puppet channel in place of Eden, an equestrian channel in place of Good Food....
We have "all Ireland senior champisonship hurling" where Dave was right now- that's what we all want to watch, right?
Never would I think I'd be in agreement with Virgin's rep, but they're spot on about UKTV's policy of not allowing VM to access their FTA channels for free and why the pay output then ends up on a Freeview channel.
There is clearly value to Virgin though in having those free channels considering they're making it more about them than the subscription channels, so as such only fair UKTV don't just rollover and give them to them.
Looking at both sides of the story moving their terrible behaviour a side I am tending to lean towards supporting UKTV.
Virgin are being very suspect with the stories they are spinning here. There is no way Virgin would have had only a few days notice. They would have known for a while UKTV were not happy with the offer they gave and that's why they got a back up plan together.
Secondly they have no right to bring the BBC name into this. Yes UKTV play don't have the streaming right to some BBC shows but that something that between the BBC and UKTV. I suspect the BBC don't let UKTV play have the content because they would like to set up and iPlayer+ which would be subscription and would make money. But the main point here is the majority of people who watch UKTV content do so via one of their channels. I think they are dragging the BBC's name into it hoping to cause a storm with the public which would end up getting the BBC involved making UKTV give in. It's not working.
Thirdly it's what it all comes down to, money. If I was UKTV I would be asking Virgin if they are going to pay less for UKTV will they pass on the saving to the customer or pocket it for them self? They probely say they want to invest the money into more content. But let be honest it be cheap content that virgin can get more money out of while not not giving there customers anything special. Also virgin now only want the free to air channels and don't know why UKTV don't let them have them for free. Two problems there the term free to air is for the customer purpose only not for the broadcaster or provider. UKTV will get nothing therefor can not cover cost to run those "FTA" channels let alone have money to invest in it's programs which they are not happy about. But also if virgin got the "FTA" channels for free would they now make them free to their customers. If not (which I suspect) then UKTV and the customer are missing out while virgin are taking all the profits.
Overall as much as I would have told UKTV to play it cool and hold your nearve rather than doing what they have done I still side with them because virgin just want all the money which is making them look bad at the moment. Also the virgin PR team would be fired.
BBC programmes are available from UKTV on Sky's catch-up and boxset services.
Did UKTV previously offer BBC programmes in their on-demand section on Virgin Media?
Were UKTV offering some level of BBC content in their on-demand service (or was it going to be removed completely), or were Virgin expecting a greater range of content?