Sky and Virgin resume TV talks
Sunday, March 9th, 2008Arch rivals kiss and make up. Again.
Seemingly minutes after the High Court ruled that Sky would have to downsize its Branson-bothering stake in ITV (and Virgin Media subsequently throwing a tantrum that anything short of a full sale wasn’t enough), the two broadband and digital TV rivals have announced that talks to return the ‘missing channels’ to the cable TV platform were back on track.
Acting Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett said “We’ve got continued interest in securing Sky basics back on our platform, that’s been evident since the close of the first quarter,” annoyingly adding that “It would be inappropriate for us to talk about where we’re at.”
In news which is apparently unrelated, it has also been revealed that Goldman Sachs has been appointed by Virgin to examine the sale of a portion of or part of Virgin Media Television division; it’s a bit hard to imagine that the news of talks with Sky is coincidental.
So whilst it’s too soon to say that Sky One and the gang will be back on cable screens, this is certainly great news for consumers.
