Virgin Media Televison

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/26/virgin-channels-bskyb-five-sale

Interesting to note this seems to be moving ahead. Along with Virgin 1s presumed closure (I expect there's room for its content elsewhere in Sky's empire), I've noticed Challenge seems to be being wound down now. I've not seen a channel trailer since Christmas and their website is woefully unloved.

(Apologies if this is a duplicate thread!)

I still think VM will regret this in the future. Sky will have more premium channels, free to charge what it feels to other platforms.

An interesting and baffling (for the reasons outlined above) development.

I can forsee Bravo and Virgin1 going, along with Sky Real Lives being subsumed by Living. Challenge is a fairly unique offering however and, though their website is looking worse for wear, their forums remain quite active with regular replies from channel staff.

I'm not sure that's so true any more. Only 4 threads showing from the last 20 days!

Certainly the channel is being starved, the only new programme to appear this year is Winning Lines, and that's gone completely without any sort of promotion. The last acquisition they properly bigged up was Golden Balls, and that was towards the end of last year.

Is men and moters still around? there could do a shut gun marriage. I don't think Barvo or living brands will go as are both popular tv channels

M&M closed to make way for ITV1 HD on the EPG in England & Wales. Bravo & Living will have to be renamed - Sky like to slap their moniker on everything they own!

Part of the deal is to give the cable part of the company deals over Sky's channels including HD versions

I reckon the only channel to go will be Virgin1, which is after all mainly a channel to show their own programmes on Freeview (as was FTN). The few exclusive programmes it has will probably move to Sky1/2/3 if they're any good.

I can't see Living being touched too much, it's a good brand and very popular, it certainly doesn't have much overlap with Real Lives.

Ah right, so Sky will have to offer reduced rates for these channels as part of the deal? That's not so bad I suppose. I do worry about Sky having all these channels though, competition seems to be going out the window thesedays.

SKY MEN

SKY Woman

I think just Sky Bravo and Sky Living will be OK.

Living has had enough different prefix/suffixes over the years to manage to keep its identity:

UK Living
Living
LivingTV
LIVINGtv
LIVING (again)

Yes, if you'd read the article in the original post, you would have seen:

As part of the complex deal to sell Virgin Media TV to Sky, the cable operator is expected to cement a long-term carriage deal.

This will ensure it has continued access both to the VMTV channels such as Living, once sold off, but also to BSkyB's premium sports and movie channels and high-definition services.

The negotiations are understood has been eased by the recent, though still disputed, pay-TV ruling from Ofcom, forcing BSkyB to cut its wholesale prices for Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rival subscription operators including Virgin Media.

During the discussions both companies are said to have acknowledged that they have common ground, as they are staking their businesses on a pay model and broadband supply, and have a common enemy, in the Freeview digital terrestrial TV service.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/26/virgin-channels-bskyb-five-sale