The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Customers left outraged after TV shows wiped
Virgin Media drops popular channels after price impasse with UKTV
Virgin Media customers have been left outraged after UKTV channels including Dave and Gold were wiped from “about four million” boxes due to a business dispute.
Some viewers said they are cancelling subscriptions, while others threatened to abandon the digital cable TV provider if the popular channels were not restored.
Talks between the firms failed to solve an impasse over fees and 10 channels, including five which are free-to-air, disappeared from subscribers’ TVs at midnight on Saturday. Viewers were also left unable to access UKTV on-demand services via their Virgin Media sets. Freeto-air channels Dave, Drama, Home, Really and Yesterday, along with paid-for channels Gold, Alibi, Eden, Good Food and W were replaced on Sunday.
It leaves fans of shows including Taskmaster and Red Dwarf unable to watch programmes. Virgin Media has accused the broadcaster of seeking “inflated sums” to provide its paid channels. David Bouchier, the cable TV firm’s chief digital entertainment officer, said: “We’ve been in discussions with UKTV but we have not been able to reach an agreement.
“UKTV is insisting on holding back its channels, like Dave, which are freely available over the air and online, unless we pay inflated sums of money for its paid channels like Gold. On top of this, UKTV is unable to provide the extensive on-demand programming which is expected of a modern day broadcaster.”
UKTV chief executive Darren Childs said it could not accept the “drastic” cut in price Virgin was seeking to show the paid channels on its pay-to-view service.