Ah, that's no fun, Virgin Media have taken down the previously reported bitchy listing information for the Sky channels no longer available via the Virgin cable TV network. As previously reported, on the channel where Virgin had once aired Sky News, the electronic programme guide read 'Sky Snooze, try BBC'. But that and other bitchy lines have been removed, seemingly at the request of Richard Branson personally.
The move led to an unusually courteous exchange between the two rival media firms, with Branson telling the Guardian: "I have asked them [Virgin Media's staff] to take it [the bitchiness] down. We do not mean any disrespect to Sky News. I think it is a very good news channel". Sky responded: "Sky applauds Sir Richard Branson's decision to halt Virgin Media's childish mocking of Sky News and our other basic channels".
Though Sky did get in another dig about Virgin's refusal to pay the price it is asking for the cable network to include the satellite broadcaster's free to air channels on its network: "After Virgin Media's negative comments about the quality of our channels in recent days, it is refreshing to hear Sir Richard's praise for Sky News as a 'very good news channel' and we call on him to take action to restore our basic channels to Virgin Media customers".
Meanwhile, Virgin Media have confirmed that it will allow customers to cease subscribing to its services without having to pay any contractual service breakage fines because of the loss of the core Sky channels on its cable TV platform. The move follows a statement from the National Consumer Council last week saying it was concerned that the dispute between Sky and Virgin was having an unfair impact on consumers, and that it might urge regulators to step in to protect consumer interests. Virgin stressed that "the withdrawal of Sky's basic channels does not breach our agreement with customers" but said that it would allow consumers to leave them without fulfilling their contractual obligations anyway, as a good will gesture.
Virgin Media CEO Steve Burch said on Friday: "Virgin Media wants to do the right thing by its customers and resolve this dispute, as well as its underlying causes. We think our customers will quickly recognise that the improvements we've recently made to our TV service, together with other exciting enhancements we've got in the pipeline, make Virgin Media's TV service the most comprehensive and exciting in the UK. Over the next month, however, if they don't agree, we will not use technical legalities to stand in the way of them switching to another service. Among both our customers and the public as a whole, we believe there is a significant groundswell of support for our decision to stand up to Sky: we are determined to ensure it is the customer that benefits from our determination to do so".
Insiders say Virgin would actually quite like the NCC to initiate some kind of regulator investigation into the Sky/Virgin dispute because they believe there is a case for arguing Sky are acting anti-competitively (ie refusing to negotiate with Virgin over its channels in a bid to persuade the cable firm's customers to switch to Sky Digital) and that any regulatory action would probably go in their favour. Which it may or may not, who knows?