Search results matching tag 'Virgin Media'

Online video: Over-hyped, over-sold, or just misunderstood?

2545541 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:20:00 GMT

Back in 1996 when I was involved in the UK launch of MSN there was an all-singing, all dancing event at the Royal Commonwealth Institute here in London. Programme makers trouped along to hear MSN tout the Web as the next best thing for watching TV-like content. Bear in mind this was in the days of 28.8 dial-up...

Obviously it never happened that way, and arguably there have been a series of online video false dawns. Just the other month a piece of research by Tube Mogul showed that most web TV series lose the majority of their viewers after episode one.

I mention this as a Media Post article under the heading ‘Online Video Usage Dramatically Overstated’, talks about a recent piece of research – the (US) Video Consumer Mapping Study, produced by Sequent Partners and Ball State University. The project found that while a lot of people watch online video, as a proportion of viewing figures it’s very low. Online video makes up less than 1% of US viewing time, while the good old TV still has a 2/3 viewing share.

This is supported by a raft of other research that shows, plainly, the Internet is somewhere where people dip in and out of to watch short clips. By and large its not somewhere where you can serve them lengthy content. Case in point, Comscore measures average US online video watching at ten minutes a day, and around fifteen minutes for the UK.

Indeed, one of the authors of the Video Consumer Mapping Study reckoned that people actually over estimated their online video usage and talked down the amount of time spent in front of the box because online video is seen as "cool."

TV RIP? Hardly

The fact is that advertising-led recession woes aside, unlike the print industry, TV has actually held its own pretty well. As Nielsen showed last year, heavy Internet users are actually the most likely to also watch TV as they multi-task.

And the past decade has seen a range of innovations introduced from the (now) humble PVR onwards. Just this week Italian / Israeli start-up Bee TV received a cool $8 million in funding for what TechCrunch described as its ‘stunning’ personal TV recommendation system

According to the online demo, the founders fully intend to white label it to multi-channel TV content providers (like Sky and Virgin Media here in the UK) as a value added they can pass onto customers.

The conclusion? Online video, definitely here to stay and a powerful medium. But it supplements and doesn’t replace the main video viewing platform. That’s still the telly.

Image Credit - 'The Sofa'

Thank you Virgin...next please!

2175094 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:00:00 GMT

Merry Christmas! And what better Christmas present could there be than super-fast broadband to watch all your favourite festive TV programmes and movies (don't forget Mary Poppins!) as well as browse all that wonderful online content while others in the family enjoy a mince pie and watch the Queen address the nation at 3 o'clock on the dot (set your Sky+ or watch it on Her Majesty's You Tube channel). So its a big welcome this week for Virgin's announcement of the launch of its 50 Megabits per second domestic fibre-optic broadband service (otherwise known as 'XXL broadband'). Next generation broadband here we come!

Even better news is the announcement that the service will be rolled out across the UK in the next few months. Virgin's press release is a little unclear as to what this actually means though. Does country-wide mean that those of us that live in the more rural parts of Britain, who have been experiencing life in the broadband 'slow lane' for some time now, will suddenly be able to watch streamed video and television with no interuptions by next summer? Copper has served us well: no one really dreamed up us doing anything more than talking to each other all those years ago. High-definition television was unthinkable then. Today the BBC's iPlayer and YouTube each take up to 10 per cent of broadband bandwidth (it doesn't surprise me that Internet Service Providers - squeezed at every level by competition and regulation - are crying out for content providers to put some money in the 'fibre optic pot') and we're going to need faster internet speeds if we are to continue to enjoy these data-rich services, such as television (perhaps one day in 3D?), video, gaming and music. More importantly, it will be more than necessary if one or more people in a household are accessing these services at the same time, as is fairly likely.

Thankfully, this issue is at the top of the Government's agenda and this is reflected in the development of a Digital Britain Plan, to be published in June 2009. The regulatory issues around 'access' to wholesale products (such as those provided by BT and Virgin) are complex but critical to competition and affordability, but its good to see Virgin taking the lead and making the investment (as - to be fair - BT has also done). The public is crying out for these services and we depend on faster broadband to deliver them to ensure that we...wait for it...have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious online experience!

Time to bring back the ITN Jobs Totaliser

1704826 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:57:00 GMT

Anyone else old enough to remember when News at Ten used to end its reports with a run down of company closures and job losses at the end of the forecast? Sandy Gall or Anna Ford would gravely inform the assembled nation of the closure of a steel-works or mass redundancies at a regional manufacturer, with a tally of total job losses for the day.

Occasionally there'd be a thin ray of good news - a service-based company, such as a contract cleaning company, a caterer or a security firm would make a few hirings - but the overall impression was apparent; the recession was well and truly happening. On a longer-term note, it also revealed that the nature and structure of the UK's employment base was shifting away from industry and toward services.

But what would it look like today if News at Ten's current anchors Mark Austin or Julia Etchingham introduced a similar strand? With Virgin Media axing 2000 jobs one day and BT 10,000 the next, the numbers look worse than back in the early 80s. And what's more, there doesn't seem to be any good news of any company or sector hiring anyone.

In another throwback, perhaps Mayor Boris should resurrect the giant unemployed totaliser so beloved by Ken (when he was still Red) and display it pointing toward the Houses of Parliament from where, once again, this whole sorry mess seems to have emanated.

Sky and Virgin Media kiss and make up and now need to move on

1704826 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:24:00 GMT

With the benefit of hindsight, the now resolved dispute between Virgin Media and Sky over carriage fees looks like a silly and rather arrogant little spat that should never have been allowed to happen.

When it broke out, it looked like evidence of an increasingly confident Virgin Media TV willing to bravely take on the Goliath-like Sky. Letters from then Sky chief executive, James Murdoch, were leaked to the press, legal threats were made while stories emerged over how much the loss of the channels was costing each party in ad sales and subscriptions respectively.

However given the more macro-economic and structural problems in the TV market, after dragging on for 18 months the argument was in danger of resembling two balding men fighting over a comb.

Pay-TV is potentially in trouble - evidence has emerged that consumers are considering scrapping pay-TV and turning to free-to-air digital alternatives. With the country poised to be completely digital by 2012, if the recession is as long as some fear then this dispute could have ended up costing both Virgin Media and Sky dearly.

For a full analysis of the challenges of pay-TV versus free-to-air TV platforms, see next week's Marketing.

No one is going to pay for PSB on ITV

255762 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:40:00 GMT

Ofcom's proposals published today on public service broadcasting seem largely sensible, but its research claiming that people are willing to pay to see public service TV on a network other than the BBC holds no water. I don't buy it. No one is going to pay anything.

Even in better economic times I would find it hard to believe that people would part with extra cash, on top of the licence fee and the cash they no doubt pay to either BSkyB or Virgin Media, for any TV service.

But Ofcom says quite clearly in its report today that: "Audiences value highly PSB alternatives to complement the BBC." Okay, I can buy that, I am sure they do.

Then Ofcom goes on to say that: "Three quarters of people are willing to pay on average up to £3.50 per month for PSB services on ITV, Channel 4 and five".

While I can believe the first sentence, the second sentence that three quarters of people are willing to pay up to £3.5 or £42 a year to receive PSB on a channel other than the BBC I don't believe in the slightest. Who are these people?

Besides what people tell researchers and what they do with their cash are two different things. Getting that £42 would prove very hard if not impossible.

If Ofcom bases any future policy on insisting there is a place for public service broadcasting outside of the BBC then that would be a mistake.

US TV networks return cash to advertisers

255762 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:05:06 GMT

The future of advertising is starting to arrive in the US this week and it could be here soon as well. TV networks there are returning cash to advertisers as the impact of digital video recorders start to bite.
US TV networks are facing a ratings decline and the three major networks -- ABC, NBC and CBS -- are compensating advertisers mostly with extra commercial time, while NBC is actually giving cash back. It seems like an anathema and is all down to the growing use of digital video recorders like TiVo.

NBC is reported to have begun reimbursing advertisers for fourth-quarter prime-time ratings shortfalls, averaging about $500,000 per advertiser, marking the first time in years a network has taken such a step because it had already sold much of its available commercial inventory.

It could happen here next, just take a look at the numbers. Last month BSkyB hit a record 14% quarterly growth in subscribers to Sky+, up 323,000 on the previous quarter to 2.7m, and the service is now in almost a third of Sky homes.

That figure will grow again next year as Virgin Media starts pushing its own DVR service although its marketing to customers is generally so poor that most probably don't even know that the service is available (plus it has an onerous installation cost, double that of Sky+).

I'm a big fan of Sky+. It is Television how it was mean to be. And when I say I don't just mean television without the advertising (although it’s a major bonus), but also TV when you want it.

Video on demand is alright and Virgin Media's catalogue of programmes and films is extensive, but it is not necessarily want you actually want to watch. It's not what I want to watch at least, but then I have already gone through the pain of getting rid of my service if not the box (I can not for some reason get Virgin Media to take it away for love nor money; nor indifference and loathing for that matter either).

If you happen to be in and there is something you want to watch it's much more pleasant to go off and do something more useful for ten minutes and then return to the programme and skip through the ads.

Of course, even fast forwarding at x30 you don't miss the messages. You see the logos, recognise the brand trimmings and have taken on a message all the same. Just not all of them and just not in the same way as before.

Everyone knew that the 30 and 60 second broadcast ad spot would have to change and this is only more confirmation of that.

For US networks this problem will be exacerbated next year for other reasons as the writers' strike continues to run and schedules are loaded up with reruns and reality shows. That will have an impact as well on British schedules and some channels will be harder hit than others.

Terminate this

255762 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:17:34 GMT

I have been looking at Virgin 1, trying to work out a reason to watch it. It seems to mostly comprise of programming that has appeared elsewhere. Save 'The Riches' (which I wouldn't), but in the 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' looks like there might be a (pretty geeky) reason to watch. Oh and here are some pretty cool looking posters...

It's a nice twist to have good guy terminator as a girl in the shape of Summer Glau, who stars opposite Lena Headey of 'The 300' fame, one of the seemingly ever-expanding list of British actors currently starring in leading roles in US TV shows.

Talking of those Brits, Kevin McKidd, of 'Rome' and 'Trainspotting' is another in 'Journeyman', which has him as a time-travelling San Francisco reporter and it's pretty good. Actually, it's better than pretty good and I'm not just saying that because it's about a reporter (he spends next to no time in the news room), but sadly it is already facing possible cancellation after just a handful of episodes.

I digress, it looks like 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' will arrive earlier, according to a Media Week story, than predicted on Virgin 1 because of the writers strike, which has to be good news.

Virgin Media TV managing director Jonathan Webb certainly thinks so: "Terminator will ignite our schedule." Proof positive of a schedule that is not on fire.

At the moment, the Virgin 1 schedule seems to consist of episodes of the David Mamet created show 'The Unit', which is fine -- except these all previously appeared on another Virgin Media channel Bravo (the one for men), as well as lots of 'Star Trek' (episodes of 'Deep Space Nine' and 'Enterprise').

Virgin 1's only other first-run show has been 'The Riches', which although critically well received and starring more leading Brits (this time Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver), but doesn't seem to have caught the audience's attention.

'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' fills in the gap between the second (good) and third (not so good) 'Terminator' movies. That's right, it's time to get back to saving the human with combat shotguns, car chases and pyrotechnics. What could possibly go wrong?

Virgin Media desperation

255762 — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:18:32 GMT

Just how desperate are Virgin Media to hang on to customers? The answer I found after ringing them was very.

I've been seriously toying with leaving Virgin Media ever since it fell out with Sky and lost its basic set of channels.

I'm not the only one. One of BR's other bloggers Alan Munro is trying to do the same and suffereing.

I quite like Sky News and Sky One. I wasn't glued to '24', but would watch it as I would 'Lost'. More keenly I do feel the loss of 'Battlestar Galactica', which I have mentioned before is my favourite show on TV. Losing it half way through the third season was harsh (give me a break I'm a geek).

Still I survived, but I've had enough now and am going to jump ship. The last straw wasn't even anything to do with my digital TV service, but the fact that for months after I thought I had cancelled various telephone services that I hardly used (voice mail et cetera) I was still paying for them. More phone calls to Virgin Media, which has fully adopted NTL's terrible customer service. Endless voice jail menus asking you to push ONE, THREE, ONE and NINE should you want to change your mind.

So I called last night and after being on hold for a mere 20 minutes (the muzak alone is enough to make you hang up on life, let alone Virgin Media), I got through and said I wanted to cancel.

Virgin then offered to cut £20 off of my bill a month either for 12 months or indefinitely. Needless to say customer service guy did not know which. That's handing me back £240 a year. But it still doesn't give me some of the few shows worth turning the TV on for.

I'm thinking.