Virgin Media To Attack Sky’s Sports Rate

Virgin Media – the multi-media platform made up of the merger of NTL, Telewest
and Virgin Mobile that launched today – has targeted the cost of Sky’s sports
package as a weakness the newly formed rival can exploit.

At its launch event, Jim Mooney, chairman of Virgin Media declared that Sky’s
charges for its sports and films offering were a ‘soft underbelly’ that his
company would be looking to attack.

‘Sky overcharges customers right now for sports and movies – they continually
raise their prices. We think that’s a weakness we can exploit. Within that space
we are going to exploit that weakness where Sky has over 5 million customers
right now.

‘Sky forces customers to take packages above and beyond what they want to
take in terms of content and price. The content is good but when you force
customers to take all of that stuff you are leaving yourself exposed. What they
really want is to take more on an à la carte basis.

‘With our quadplay we can package what customers want, any content they want
at very compelling values. We will not take months to roll this out – we’ll be
out very soon with our proposals.’

Virgin Media will offer customers a combined package of TV, mobile, landline
and broadband services.

Virgin recently lost out to Sky in acquiring a 17.9% stake in ITV which
stopped the new conglomerate from merging with the terrestrial broadcaster.

Much of the success of Sky’s format has come from the demand for its live
coverage of FA Premier League football.