The past few days have seen much media coverage about the dispute that has been more to do with brand positioning than agreeing a price for distribution.
The latest shots have been fired by Sky who have threatened to distribute the channels themselves to Virgin Customers if the media Group does not return to the table.Not suprisingly Virgin has rebuffed the threat announcing that Sky does not have access to the cable network.
Its boss Steve Burch has asked Sky to go to arbitration which will keep the channels on air after midnight tonight.
Yesterday Virgin boss Richard Branson wrote to all customers setting out the group's arguments
"
Sky may withdraw their non-premium channels from Virgin
Media's service - in order to force you into switching service.
Virgin Media
were willing to pay an increase in costs in order to get the complete range of
Sky content and channels.
However, Sky have consistently demanded an
increase that bears no relation to the channels' market value.
We have
refused to accept this increase, since it would mean absorbing significant costs
ourselves, and passing the kind of price increase on to our customers that is
simply unfair. We are not prepared to rip off our customers."
Watching with interest
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