Virgin Media vs. Sky: National Ad Campaign Underway

On the bus to a meeting today I passed a lot of very prominent Sky advertising like this, which highlights that Virgin Media (VMED) customers in the UK are to lose content like "Lost" and "24" due to the public bust-up between Virgin and Sky.

See Sky ad 03 07 here, originally uploaded by jimiinc.

One other billboard I saw pulled no punches: "Get Jack Back," it screamed, followed by a succinct explanation about Virgin's apparent decision to drop Sky content and ending with the message "To subscribe to Sky, call..."

What amazes me about all of this is the sheer speed with which Sky has been able to move. What was a public spat a week ago has been turned into a national ad campaign virtually overnight. At lunch today someone reminded me that this is exactly the sort of advertising at which Richard Branson excelled ten years ago during his bitter war with British Airways (BAB).

Comments

[support]

As a non-subscriber to either service I still found myself incensed by the SKY advertising campaign and the 'tactics' SKY appear to be employing.

The missing word from the article appears to be 'premeditated' - we know business moves quickly but...

It has taken Virgin Media somewhat longer to create a reply and flood the media with their own advertising campaign - perhaps their marketing department are at fault or Virgin never believed it would come to this! Either way SKY moved very fast.

Consequently, to see fair play, a campaign has been set-up at Don't Let SKY Win! to support subscribers (be they Virgin or SKY!) from being stuck in a potential monopoly situation. This site is simply an attempt to maintain equilibrium while the 'battle' is fought out and, hopefully, when people are free to choose again they can make considered choices as oppose to the forced situation they find themselves in now.

The reference to British Airways is extremely valid and the outcome should be seriously considered. Virgin's well publicised 'win' against BA (from a similar position against heavy-handed opposition) offered customers choice and now they are free to choose who they fly with.

It should also be considered that underlying this dispute is competition, not just for a few basic SKY channels, but for telephone, internet and mobile phone subscribers - now that's BIG business.

CHOICE should be the order of the day and having 'picked the ball up and gone home' (to coin the Virgin phrase) - SKY should think very carefully about why they initially franchised their channels to a competitor and that, in future, when competition gets difficult, you train harder and put out a better team - you don't nick the ball!