Virgin Media to commence legal action against BSkyB over basic channels

by Mark Banham, Brand Republic 03-Apr-07, 11:30

LONDON - With the deadline due to expire tomorrow, Virgin Media says it will push ahead with planned legal action against its rival BSkyB as it fights to regain Sky's basic channels for its cable service.

A spokesman for Virgin Media confirmed that the situation remained stalemate and no progress had been made on agreeing an acceptable deal on the basic package of channels Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three and Sky Sports News from its offering, and a potential 3.3m viewers.

A spokesman for Virgin Media, said: "There has been no change to our public announcement on March 5."

Virgin Media promised on March 5 that it would take court action 30 days from the breakdown in negotiations with Sky if there was no settlement.

Historically, Sky and Virgin Media have each retailed the other's channels to their customers. Virgin Media TV channels, such as Living and Bravo, have been broadcast by Sky to its customers and Sky's basics channels have been broadcast to Virgin Media to its customers.

Since the removal of the basic package the cable owner's subscribers can no longer watch hit programmes such as '24', 'Lost', 'The Simpsons' and 'Battlestar Galactica'.

Virgin Media replaced Sky One with its Virgin Central brand, which transmits on channel 120. Virgin Central is a video-on-demand channel offering shows such as 'Spooks', 'The Office' and 'Alias'.

The broadcaster maintains that Sky has demanded nearly double the price for its basic channels while forcing a dramatic cut in the price it pays for Virgin Media TV's channels.

Insiders say that although the deadline may not be strictly adhered to, a legal approach is due next week, should a last minute deal not be struck.

Insiders at Sky said that there was little chance of a deal being struck before Virgin Media's self imposed deadline.

A formal statement is expected from Sky, once the deadline of midnight tomorrow has passed, until then, the broadcaster refused to comment.