Some of Sky’s basic channels have been removed from Virgin Media after the two companies failed to resolve a disagreement over pricing.

Virgin Media claims that Sky has doubled the cost of Sky One, Sky Sports News, Sky News and Sky Travel. Virgin feels this is unjustified as these channels have receiving falling ratings recently. Virgin is accusing Sky of bullying and arrogance.

After failing to agree on a new price, the channels were switched off last night. This means that Virgin Media viewers will miss out on popular programmes like Lost, 24 and the Simpsons.

More info from the BBC

It is the last day of the year and what a year it has been for the broadband, home phone, digital TV and mobile markets.

Broadband

2006 was the year the free broadband was born and totally revolutionised the industry. In April, TalkTalk were the consumer champions, entering into a brave new world of “free broadband forever”. Now they are the villains, with massive customer service and connection issues. Orange has also suffered similar problems with their free broadband service. Have they tainted the reputation of free broadband? Well, in 2007 consumers will no doubt be very suspicious of free broadband offerings from TalkTalk, Orange and Sky. Many people are already opting to turn their backs on free broadband and instead choosing to pay for a service that is more reliable. Over time, free broadband will recover as providers sort out the problems with the service.

Home Phone

The days of home phone providers being called “Telco’s” and broadband providers being called “ISP’s” are gone. 2006 was the year in which the two became interchangeable. “Convergence” was the new industry buzzword. Home phone providers moved into broadband if they hadn’t already and ISP’s offered home phone and broadband bundled together.

BT finally became slightly competitive with price controls being lifted by the industry regulator, Ofcom. You are still better off to use an alternative provider though.

Digital TV

The UK’s biggest Digital TV provider moved into broadband with its free broadband offering to Sky Digital customer.

Awareness “digital switch over” increased with more noise being made by Ofcom, DigitalUK and providers like Sky, Telewest and ntl.

Mobile Phone

Naturally, advances in mobile technology continued. 3 mega pixel camera phones became the new threshold that aspiring manufacturers had to reach, with Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia leading the pack.

Cash back deals from mobile retailers became common place with retailers giving money back to customers as long as they send in their mobile bills at designated times.

Convergence with broadband extended to mobile operators with Orange entering the free broadband club (following the rebrading of Wanadoo as Orange Broadband), Virgin Mobile merging with ntl/Telewest, O2 buying broadband provider Be and Vodafone developing its broadband product. T-Mobile is also rumoured to be entering the broadband market soon.

2007 Predictions

In 2007 we are likely to see the big players like Virgin, Orange, TalkTalk, Vodafone and BT will battle it out of market share. We are likely to see even more consolidation in all markets with these bigger providers buying up the smaller providers. Smaller providers will simply not survive in this cutthroat world.

Convergence will continue with companies offering the triple play products of broadband, home phone and digital TV or broadband, home phone and mobile.

The newly merged Virgin Mobile, ntl and Telewest will be determined to gain some dominance in the market with its quad play offering of broadband, home phone, digital TV and mobile.

It will certainly be an exciting year ahead, and we are likely to see more stellar deals!

Happy New Year

Useful links

Compare broadband deals

Compare mobile deals

Compare home phone deals

Compare digital TV deals

NTL has dropped its £4.7 billion bid for ITV. It has decided there is no future in the deal. This move comes after News Corporation bought a 19.9% stake in ITV, effectively blocking NTL from take control of ITV. NTL said in its statement that it “submitted its views on this purchase to the Office of Fair Trading and OFCOM because it presents serious competition and public interest issues”.

Sky has extended it digital TV special offer until Nov 30th. You can get Sky TV half price for the first three months and packages from £7.50 per month (£15 thereafter).

To find out more, visit Sky’s website

Compare against other deals

NTL:Telewest are planning on selling their triple offering of broadband, home phone, digital television and mobile phones through Virgin stores next year. The merged company of NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile will be re-branded under the Virgin name. Part of the deal allows the products to be sold in Virgin’s 120 high street stores.

This will allow NTL:Telewest to really take on the likes of the Carphone Warehouse. It is also seen as a reversal of the trend for businesses to move their sales functions online.

Full article at This is Money

The number of households with digital TV continues to grow. According to offical Ofcom figures, the percentage of households with digital TV has increased from 69.7% to 70.2% between the end of March and the end of June.

The increase is, in part at least, due to the digital switchover. The analogue signal will be turned off from 2008 and people must switch to digital TV to be able to receive television.

Compare digital TV deals

Find out more about the digital switchover

Sky has extended its half price offer until October 31st. You will get Sky half price for the first 3 months on any package if you sign up between now and October 31st. Sky’s cheapest package is normally £15 per month and is now £7.50 for the first 3 months.

You will also receive a £10 credit if you sign up online.

Visit the Sky website

The newly merged ntl Telewest and Virgin Mobile has announced a bundled broadband, digital TV, home phone and mobile phone service. Industry insiders call this “quad-play”. Until now, the most any single provider has managed to offer is “triple play”, which is a bundle of 3 services, normally broadband, digital TV and home phone.

The new quad-play service offers great value for money. For £40 per month you will receive all four products. You will enjoy the following:

Broadband

• Up to 2Mb
• Firewall and anti-virus
• Installed by an engineer

Digital TV

• Over 30 channels, including Sky One, E4, UKTV Gold, Film 4, ITV2 and Living TV
• TV on demand
• Set top box. No need for a dish

Home Phone

• Unlimited weekend calls
• Line rental
• Standard features like 1471 and voicemail

Mobile

• Virgin Mobile SIM (mobile handset not included)
• 300 minutes and 300 texts any network, any time of the day
• Free voicemail
• Virgin Bites entertainment service

If you do not want all four services, you can order the Virgin Mobile service with any other ntl or Telewest service for an extra £10 per month (normally £20 per month).

To sign up to the £40 per month broadband, mobile, digital TV and home phone service, visit either the ntl or the Telewest website by clicking on one of the following links. This will take you to a 3 for £30 page (broabband, digital TV and home phone). You will be able to add the Virgin mobile service to the bundle during the ordering process, bringing the total price up to £40 per month.

Visit ntl

Visit Telewest

BT has launched a new service called BT Movio that will allow customers to view TV programmes in real time on a mobile phone. BBC One, ITV 1 and E4 will be available live, without some movies. A streamlined version of Channel 4 will also be available.

The first mobile network to offer the BT Movio service will be Virgin Mobile and it will be available from October 1st. The service will be available on a new phone called the Virgin Mobile Loster 700TV. Virgin customers on a tariff of more that £25 will get the service and the new Loster 700TV for free. Other customers can buy the phone for £199 and the service costs £5 per month, with the first 3 months free.

Compare Mobile Deals

Sky is now half price for the first 3 months across all of its digital TV product range. You will also receive a £10 credit for signing up online.

Once you are a Sky digital customer, you can apply for free Sky broadband.

Take advantage of this offer

Offer ends September 30th.