Not content with signing HBO up as exclusive to the channel, Sky Atlantic has now announced it's also tied up Showcase with a similar deal, depriving Virgin Media customers of further US cable hits.
“This is one of the most important content deals Sky has ever agreed, cementing Sky’s position as the market-leader in Europe for world-class drama,” said Sky Content boss Gary Davey.The absence of Sky Atlantic from Virgin has long been a bone of contention for many cable customers, myself included, and for the last few years I've subscribed to Now TV's Entertainment package just to get access to the channel and related Sky Box sets. The downside for Virgin Media is that, as the Now TV platform matures, the money I spend on Virgin's XL TV is increasingly looking like poor value compared with the Sky-powerered alternative and unless something changes soon I may abandon Virgin's TV service simply because I'm paying VM a small fortune each month when almost all the shows I watch are on Freeview, Netflix or Atlantic.
“The agreement means our customers can enjoy an incredible slate of upcoming new dramas like Billions, Twin Peaks and also explore hundreds of hours of amazing series such as Dexter, Californication, The Affair and House of Lies on demand from the back catalogue of one of the world’s most exciting pay TV networks.”
The value of the deal was not revealed but Sky is known to have paid at least£55m a year for a UK-only HBO rights agreement, which runs until 2020.
The pan-European Showtime deal is thought to be worth about £75m per year.
5 comments:
I don't think Sky Atlantic not being on virgin is a big deal at all anymore. Now TV is an affordable option to add the channel in addition to VM, and the price is probably about what you'd pay for that one channel on virgin anyway if Sky offered it to us.
You can also just buy an iTunes season pass if you're interested in one particular show.
I don't really watch any dramas these days since I just felt stressed out seeing 20 unwatched episodes on my TiVo. I just don't have the time on top of my other hobbies.
I'm in a similar position, thinking of reducing to basic Virgin TV package (no external aerial for Freeview, could get one fitted I guess). Does reduce HD channels a lot as well though.
We have Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO Now. This change is made more likely when the Virgin TV box is so slow and clunky that it is the last choice I'd use for streaming (e.g. iPlayer) out of the options available to me.
I've signed up to the Now TV Entertainment package for six months (heavily discounted) to see if it fully meets our needs. I suspect it will, which means I may drop down from my Big Kahuna ridiculous costs to something more affordable.
As a sport fan it's the sport that is keeping me with Virgin, if it wasn't for that I'd have cut the TV along time ago.
Down sized to virgin m pack and money saved used having Nowtv entertainment pack
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