VM channels -- some leaving some arrive

UKTV Channels to leave Verjin at the weekend

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Dave, Gold and W are set to be axed from Virgin Media’s service this weekend after the platform failed to renew terms with UKTV.

The BBC Studios / Discovery-owned broadcaster’s portfolio of 10 channels will no longer be available to Virgin’s 4m TV subscribers from midnight on Sunday.

Virgin claimed negotiations hit an impasse over UKTV’s unwillingness or inability to include in the deal box sets of archive BBC programming.

UKTV generated record turnover of £345m in 2016 and Broadcast estimates the stand-off could cost it tens of millions of pounds. It will also cause a headache in terms of lost advertising revenue, particularly around its free-to-air channels.

Virgin’s chief entertainment officer David Bouchier said that its subscribers expect on-demand access to broadcasters’ full archive, something UKTV is unable to offer, and laid the blame at the door of its joint venture parent company, BBC Studios.

“What our customers want, and what UKTV delivers is increasingly diverging,” he said. “It is prevented from offering us digital rights due to its deal with the BBC, which effectively locks it into a linear world.

“Viewing behaviours among our customers are changing and we are committed to investing in the kind of programming they want to watch, whenever and however they want to watch it.”

UKTV offered a different version of events.

It cited a drastic reduction in the carriage fees it has been offered by Virgin as the reason the two businesses are at loggerheads.

Chief executive Darren Childs said: “We want to continue to provide our channels to Virgin Media, but the huge cut in fees that Virgin has requested doesn’t reflect the value we bring to customers.”

Childs claimed that his channels account for more than 25% of pay-TV entertainment viewing on Virgin.

UKTV struck a ‘landmark’ deal with Virgin in 2016 which handed the pay-TV platform access to 10,000 hours of programming, but the bulk of this comprised catch-up and boxset rights to its originals, rather than the likes of Blackadder, Fawlty Towers and Top Gear.

Many carriage deals are resolved at the eleventh hour, such as the recent stand-off between Discovery and Sky, but the complicated nature of this dispute means an agreement may be less likely than usual.

Virgin’s Bouchier said that the rights to the BBC archive has been the key sticking point in negotiations which have dragged on for several months

“UKTV is increasingly investing in its own programming and some of it does quite well, but the BBC shows are the backbone of the business,” he said.

Bouchier said Virgin has repeatedly contacted BBC Studios, which controls the rights to the BBC, archive but has become increasingly frustrated with what he claimed is its confused rights strategy.

“The BBC is trying to cut a cheque with linear rights and then insist we come back after it decides who we need to deal with for its on-demand rights,” he said.

He suggested that a potential future launch of a service such as a UK version of Britbox or the mooted Kangaroo 2.0 could be behind the failure for BBCS to finalise its approach.

“We are stuck in a world that is unfair and unreasonable. Netflix and ****** have acres and acres of BBC programming but we cannot get engagement on the type of rights our customers want,” he added.

Bouchier continued: “UKTV is as frustrated as we are, there is a lot of disquiet and upset – it is like an episode of The Borgias. No-one who is involved in the modern TV business will be unaware of the need to move to a digital future. It is difficult for UKTV to grow the business other that by launching more channels – it’s business model is seriously outdated.”

Virgin also believes that UKTV is eroding the value of its pay-TV channels by airing premium shows across its free-to-air services. He estimated that over the past year, 12 of the top shows on Alibi have also aired on the free-to-air Drama.

The 10 UKTV channels will be replaced on the Virgin Media TV service with a suite of services including lifestyle channel YourTV, wildlife channel Love Nature and gameshow channel IQTV.

It also plans to make £9.99 per-month channel Premier Sports available to all subscribers for free for eight weeks.

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chanel changes

- 124

W -125

Alibi -126

Dave -127

Drama - 128

Really -129

alibi +1 - 130

W +1 - 131

Gold +1 - 190

W HD - 191

Dave HD - 194

alibi HD - 200

Dave Ja Vu -211

Yesterday - 245

Yesterday +1 - 246

Eden - 247

Eden +1 - 248

Eden HD - 249

Good Food - 278

Good Food +1 - 279

Good Food HD - 280

Home - 281

Home +1 – 282

Got up this morning checked and Free-to-air channels Dave, Drama, Home, Really and Yesterday, along with paid-for channels Gold, Alibi, Eden, Good Food and W were replaced on Sunday morning.

Quote from car123

Got up this morning checked and Free-to-air channels Dave, Drama, Home, Really and Yesterday, along with paid-for channels Gold, Alibi, Eden, Good Food and W were replaced on Sunday morning.

not that it maters but dave,drama,home,really and yesterday,although fta on freeview and freesat are not fta on cable

ok strange one this, dave,yesterday etc are back on vm, but no hd version, seeing they are fta on freeview and sat wonder if they have just put them back,problem is ABM is all over the place

Hi all

Missing UK TV channels, that have returned to vermin. I have Gigablue Quad plus and openvix lastest build 5.1.032 which has ABM build in the image. tried to scan ABM few times today but cant get the lost channels back.

any help appreciated please.

Thanks

Eggie

UKTV channels restored to Virgin Media after row over fees

https://news.sky.com/story/uktv-chan...-fees-11469801

Quote from car123

UKTV channels restored to Virgin Media after row over fees

https://news.sky.com/story/uktv-chan...-fees-11469801

I know thats why I'm trying to use ABM to scan to get channels back but ABM not restoring lost channels now ABM finds 417 video 37 radio but no channels show up not even bouquets . Basically no channels at all even though ABM says it found 417 video.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Eggie

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