August 15, 2011

Virgin Media exits content arena

Well, at least they didn't sell it to BSkyB:
Virgin Media has sold its 50% stake in pay TV operator UKTV to US TV company Scripps Networks in a deal worth £339m.
Scripps – which owns US TV brands including The Cooking Channel and The DIY Network – has paid £239m in cash, and will pay out about £100m to acquire the outstanding preferred stock and debt owed by UKTV to Virgin Media.
Virgin Media had valued it stake in UKTV, the pay-TV business formed in 1997 as a 50-50 joint venture with BBC Worldwide, at about £350m including outstanding loans of more than £100m.
Can we please have Sky Atlantic with some of that £300m+, Mr Berkett?

14 comments:

jonathan said...

Dont bother getting sky atlantic, theres nothing on worth watching, would much rather see the rest of sports in hd.

gking said...

+1 to that

campbellg said...

-1 to that, Jonathan, Sky Atlantic has by far the best US drama out there and if VM don't stick some of that £300million into getting it I will be one unhappier customer.

At least we get sports in SD already, we don't get Sky Atlantic at all.

Get Sky Atlantic, Mr Berkett.

Krankor said...

Sky sports HD 3 & 4 if there's money to spend :)

Don't waste it on Sky Atlantic Mr Berkett (like he'll read this) :)

Darren Taylor said...

There are no longer any excuses Mr Berkett you can now afford Sky Atlantic

sibod said...

Sky Atlantic has the best HBO drama ou tthere, no questions asked.

I'll just make do with if you want True Blood, Dexter, Hawaii Five-0, The Defenders, Torchwood, Warehouse 13, Euroeka, Haven, Falling Skies, The Killing, Smallville, Camelot, The Walking Dead, Eastbound and Down, Generation Kill, Burn Notice, Terra Nova, CSI: New York, CSI, CSI Miami, Fringe, Spartacus: Blood and Sand etc, Modern Family, The Simpsons, House, NCIS, NCIS Los Angeles, Bones, Glee, The Big Bang Theory, My Name is Earl, The Simpsons, Futurama, Without a Trace, The Closer, Lost Girl....

Unknown said...

Sky Atlantic has Mad Men, the best drama in decades. They also have the superb Broadwalk Empire and Game of Thrones. Plenty of others too which are highly acclaimed.

For me it's easily the best US content out there, and I'm increasingly finding other offerings, be it Falling Skies, Fringe, Walking Dead, V, Haven and many others are to be frank, pretty weak. They're all hyped for sure, but I rarely last beyond the first couple of episodes before they're just not very good. I stuck with Fringe longer, but boy did that ever lose the plot in the most recent season.

Unknown said...

I don't get all the fuss about sky Atlantic, it's full of rubbish, with occasional decent show. Not worth paying for. If I decide I really want to watch game of thrones i'll wait for it to come on terrestrial or buy/rent the box set.

Not worth the money. Better of spending it sorting out Tivo!!!

streaky_7 said...

Well if reading this forum/blogging site has taught me one thing it's everyone has different opinions on what's important. Statements like TiVo is rubbish or sky Atlantic sucks and has nothing descent on is only one persons opinion not a fact.

So bearing this in mind, I'm going to be greedy and ask that VM invest this money, and anymore they can get their hands on, on improving TiVo , getting Sky Atlantic and increasing the number of HD channels including premium like sky sports 3&4.

Imagine if we had all of that?! Not one of them, or 2, but all of it! Wouldn't it be amazing? Wouldn't it be bliss??

Would it stop some moaning??? No. Im sure some would still find something to complain about - probably the telephone line rental being too high. But I would be chuffed to bits!!!

Anthony said...

Well said streaky_7!

I totally agree ...

Garry Whittaker said...

Interesting thing here is that it changes the competition relationship. Virgin is no longer, in any way, in competition with sky over content rights. Virgin is now just a carrier.

streaky_7 said...

As Marc Warren keeps saying

"we think it's the best way to watch TV"

Well come on VM, prove it!

In my opinion, and it's only my opinion, but I think they have nailed broadband speeds, and they keep getting faster, phone is phone so no one is that fussed.

So just loads us up with all the tv we can watch, in HD, and show everyone TiVo is better than anyone imagined (I love it as it is so I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming updates to see what improvements have been made). Blow Sky out of the water and then people may stop leaving and new ones come flocking!

I like the different ways they are trying to improve the service like spotify and having apps etc, and they should keep it up. But they need to spend this money to nail the basics an that's Atlantic and HD. Get it on board along with TiVo improvements and then it will be hard for people to complain. If no one complains then you are on to a winner!! And winners prosper.

So let's hope they listen to all what people want, whether it's broadband speeds, HD, TiVo improvements, Atlantic or maybe even concerns about the phone (I'm not aware of any but I'm sure there's some people out there who have issues with something to do with the phone service) and they plough money in to it all...........

Unless of course there's some directors who need their bonuses, let them go first and they are obviously more important!

Anonymous said...

The whole Sky Atlantic thing is a matter of OPINION.

Personally I don't like any of the shows currently showing on Sky Atlantic and I'd never even think of watching it if it came to VM.

campbellg said...

Is it fair to invest loads of money into Tivo, which has 75,000 users out of, what is it now, 3.8 million TV customers?

Get the content and then you'll get the customers.

Out of that list sibod posted how many of them were

a) not drama?
b) cancelled?

Rather a lot.