davieG Posted 17 January 2010 Posted 17 January 2010 BT says it is ready to enter a price war with Sky over the price charged for fans to watch premium sports events, including football and cricket, on TV. The telecoms firm is awaiting the outcome of an Ofcom probe, examining whether Sky must drop the wholesale price it charges rivals for content. BT Vision would aim to charge about £15 a month for Sky Sports 1, about £10 cheaper than Sky currently charges. The outcome of the investigation by the regulator will be known in March. A spokesman for BT told the BBC that there would be a benefit to the viewing public as they would be getting more choice. 'Perverse' The Ofcom inquiry into pay TV is also looking at the price Sky charges rivals for access to Sky Movies. If Ofcom rules that Sky must cut its wholesale prices it means that the likes of BT and Virgin Media could pass on to any price cuts to their customers. BT would look to introduce a new price structure from the start of the 2010/11 football season. But a Sky spokesman said: "We invest almost £1bn a year to create a top-quality sports service. "It would be perverse to force us to sell it on the cheap to competitors who have shown no appetite to invest in content or support British sport. Consumers do not benefit if regulation undermines the incentives for companies to invest." When it launched its investigation in June, Ofcom said it believed "requiring Sky to make its premium channels available to other retailers on a wholesale basis is the most appropriate way of ensuring fair and effective competition". BT and Virgin have struggled to make a dent in Sky's viewing figures. Sky has 9.5m subscribers, Virgin has 3.7m and BT Vision has 436,000. Loss on packages Virgin Media currently charges between £16.50 and £24 per month for Sky Sports 1 depending on a customer's TV package. The firm - formerly known as NTL - said it made a loss on every sports package sold because of Sky's wholesale prices and also the need to remain competitive. "Ofcom's proposals to cut wholesale prices for Sky Sports aren't about subsidising Sky's competitors," Neil Berkett, chief executive of Virgin Media, told the BBC. He said it was more about "creating a competitive market", and that Ofcom had the means to "bring premium film and sport to millions more people at much lower prices".
Hitesh Posted 17 January 2010 Posted 17 January 2010 "Sky has 9.5m subscribers, Virgin has 3.7m and BT Vision has 436,000." It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on the above figure - I don't think it will to be honest!
Samilktray Posted 17 January 2010 Posted 17 January 2010 You'll have people going on about BT like its the work of the devil soon then. Lovely.
Alexikokopops Posted 17 January 2010 Posted 17 January 2010 I'll believe it when I see it. BT are the most expensive telephony/broadband/tv company out there.
Webbo Posted 18 January 2010 Posted 18 January 2010 I'll believe it when I see it. BT are the most expensive telephony/broadband/tv company out there. Thanks for your input Mr Branson.
Matt Posted 18 January 2010 Posted 18 January 2010 I'll believe it when I see it. BT are the most expensive telephony/broadband/tv company out there. I agree, especially when it comes to the broadband, I was looking and it's something like £30 for their cheapest package - And its not even that great of a deal. Thanks for your input Mr Branson. On the other hand if you just want the broadband on Virgin, It isn't much cheaper, slightly but not alot - For the package i'd want anyway. (My mum pays for telephone with BT and she doesn't want to change - Where as i'd pay for the broadband myself because she doesn't use it).
Webbo Posted 18 January 2010 Posted 18 January 2010 On the other hand if you just want the broadband on Virgin, It isn't much cheaper, slightly but not alot - For the package i'd want anyway. (My mum pays for telephone with BT and she doesn't want to change - Where as i'd pay for the broadband myself because she doesn't use it). Get on talktalk. The phone calls are cheaper too.
Matt Posted 18 January 2010 Posted 18 January 2010 Get on talktalk. The phone calls are cheaper too. I'll look into it, I've been looking around for a while but heard bad things about all companies - But your going aren't you?! Likleyhood is if someone has a bad experience there going to publicise it rather than if they have a good experience they'll just get on with it and generally keep quiet about it
Bellend Sebastian Posted 18 January 2010 Posted 18 January 2010 I've got BT broadband which is cheap for me, and reasonably reliable. Their customer service varies from inspirational to embarrassing. The broadband failed the other night, and when I rang them up, a recorded message said there had been a major service issue that day, but when I actually got through to their customer service team they knew nothing about that and sent me ANOTHER home-hub - my third in six months, all of which work perfectly as far as I know, and naturally it all started working the next morning without me having to do anything anyway. They rang me up the other night and tried to flog me BT Vision for £15 a month (including Prem football) and I was tempted at first as I'm paying £23 a month for Sky with no sport whatsoever. When I looked into it though I discovered that BT Vision is a glorified freeview box, and that you don't get any additional channels but lots of on demand content, some of which you have to pay extra for. Some of this is HD (it has an HD output) but no actual HD tuner so you cannot watch HD programmes as they're broadcast. I think this is the case anyway, but if anyone knows different, speak now or forever hold your peace. I'd like to stop giving money to Murdoch Vision as I think the man's a massive willy puller but the Sky technology works so well. At the moment the only alternative is to save up for a Foxsat HD recorder but they're still over £250
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