[opendtv] Focus on broadband, says acting Virgin chief

Similar to the recent battle waged by Verizon FiOS to gain access to 
programming previously exclusive to cable and DBS. Looks like even in the UK, 
content and carriage in multichannel TV distribution are not separate.

Bert

---------------------------------------------
http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=2777

Focus on broadband, says acting Virgin chief

Neil Berkett, Virgin Media's acting chief executive, says the cable operator 
needs to focus on its broadband services since it is unable to compete against 
BSkyB in the premium pay-TV market. Heralding a likely shift in Virgin Media's 
marketing tactics should Berkett be confirmed as CEO, he told The Guardian that 
despite the cable group's "technical advantage we are still not really standing 
out from the crowd".

"I really do want to re-focus our energies onto the broadband platform," said 
Berkett, who was named acting CEO in August after the resignation of Steve 
Burch who stood down after just 18 months in the job.

Burch oversaw the creation of Virgin Media from the mergers of ntl, Telewest 
and Virgin Mobile. But a row with Sky over channel pricing saw the removal of 
Sky's basic channels at the beginning of March. That prompted an estimated 
40,000 cable TV subscribers to cancel their contracts. Overall consumer 
revenues fell to £619.3m in the three months to the end of June from £644.7m a 
year ago.

Berkett told The Guardian he wanted to push Virgin Media's ultra-fast broadband 
capabilities and focus on TV households that want more than Freeview's channel 
line-up, but at the same time do not need Sky's sports and movie channels.

Lovelace Consulting 22.10.2007
 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:

- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at 
FreeLists.org 

- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts: