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BSkyB and Virgin dispute leaves millions of Brits without Lost

by Brad Linder, posted Mar 2nd 2007 1:20PM

BattleStar GalacticaMillions of British Virgin Media customers have lost access to top programs including Lost, Battlestar Galactica, 24, and The Simpsons. On Thursday BSkyB pulled its channels from Virgin's cable television network as a result of a battle over content fees.

The Sky One channel on Virgin is one of the cable provider's most popular. So unless Virgin can work out deals to provide the same content to their subscribers on another channel, the longer the dispute continues the more angry customers they're going to have to deal with.

At this point, die-hard Simpsons fans are left with few choices. They can subscribe to BSkyB or turn to piracy. iTunes and most other online video stores that sell television episodes are only available to US customers.

[via TorrentFreak]

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David Henry

Rapture TV has had a dispute with BSkyB for many years it is being investigated by the UK regulator Ofcom. If want to know how BSkyB treats others visit the Rapture website and read the dispute page.

Sky are anti competitive and the evidence is there for everyone to see.

March 03 2007 at 6:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Auz

Lost, 24 and The Simpsons were all originally on free channels - so much for Sky's dedication to finding the best shows. Though they did chip in some cash for the first series of BSG I think.

March 03 2007 at 5:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DarthPaul

What people also forget is that Lost was originally shown on the free Channel4, so Sky already messed up people who had got into it.

March 02 2007 at 6:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DarthPaul

What people also forget is that Lost was originally shown on the free Channel4, so Sky already messed up people who had got into it.

March 02 2007 at 6:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jimbo

You also forgot to mention that BSkyB is owned by dear old Rupert Murdoch.

March 02 2007 at 3:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Douglin

Virgin haven't been nice about it either, they came out with the whole "Sky's picked up their ball and gone home" press release, then running ads in the papers about it, then when Sky started running their own ads Virgin had a go at them saying how it wasn't helping negotiations. Then after the channels were pulled the whole "Sky Snooze Try BBC" and "Old Sky Sports Snooze" was just childish. I'm glad that Richard Branson ordered them changed once he heard about it

March 02 2007 at 3:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mike m

Honestly, this isn't shocking. When the midnight deadline hit, it was already clear that they weren't going to come to agreement. There was just no way it was going to happen.

Lost will be On Demand though in August I believe? I'm certain Virgin will make something happen.

As for Sky, they're the ones being horrible about the whole thing. Virgin has tried everything it could, but Sky thought they could get Virgin to agree to pretty much anything, and they were wrong. The swines! as Russell Brand might say.

March 02 2007 at 2:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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