It was only a matter of time before the fragile love-in between Sky and Virgin Media fell apart. Since patching up their differences and Sky channels reappearing on the Virgin platform the two have refrained from openly attacking each other in public.Now all that has changed following Sky's delaying tactic of taking its battle to hold onto its stake in ITV to the court of appeal. Virgin Media retaliated with a statement that urges the Competition Appeal Tribunal to ignore the request and "recognise Sky's application for what it is: a blatant attempt to delay an already drawn-out process still further and refuse Sky permission to appeal."So the rivalry, which never really went away, is in the public eye again. The bigger picture obviously relates to the future of ITV, which this week embarked on a second round of cost cutting moves Virgin Media was once seen as a potential buyer of the broadcaster but any chance of this now seems to have gone away with RTL seen by some as the likeliest bidder for ITV. Some are speculating that this would then pave the away for a tie-up between Sky and Five, which would have some logic as Sky attempts to strengthen its channel offering.Whatever happens next year could see some major restructuring in the TV market and not all driven by cost savings and efficiencies.
Ian Darby
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Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 07 Jan 2009
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