Virgin TV channels bought by Sky – coming to Sky???
UK cable operator Virgin Media has completed the sale of Virgin Media Television to BSkyB following regulatory approval. VMtv has been renamed the Living TV Group.
Sky has acquired Living, Livingit, Challenge, Challenge Jackpot, Bravo, Bravo 2 and Virgin1 and their related websites. Sky will not license the Virgin brand and will announce the new channel brand for Virgin1 in due course.
In completing the acquisition, Sky has paid Virgin Media an initial �105 million. Up to an additional �55 million will be paid on UK regulatory approval.
This will / could mean channels like Living HD, that have many popular USA shows, will be appearing on the Sky satellite platform very soon. The first week in August has been mentioned a few times.
There is no indication that Film 4 HD, currently only available via Virgin cable TV in the UK, will be available on satellite in the near future.
The Office Of Fair Trading (OFT) has today cleared Sky’s acquisition of the Virgin Media Television business, after opting against referring the £160m deal to the Competition Commission.
The OFT’s approval, which follows the green light from regulators in the Republic Of Ireland in July, will see Sky make a final payment of £55m to Virgin Media to complete the deal.
Confident that regulators would place no obstacles in front of the sale, Sky wasted no time in renaming the VMtv business, which includes the Living, Bravo, Virgin1 and Challenge brands, as The Living TV Group.
The company has also rebranded the Virgin1 channel as Channel One, after opting against a licensing deal for Virgin’s branding.
Last month, the Living TV Group’s boss Claudia Rosencrantz expressed her admiration for Sky and said that she would “love” to work at the satellite broadcaster.
source: digitalspy