Discovery-Sky dispute (Now resolved)

Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "Churn is not where we want it to be but we've got a good set of plans to bring it down."


The plans include the introduction of a loyalty programme, with the best rewards given to the longest-serving customers. Sky is also hoping to stem customer losses with its new mobile network service, which offers savings to pay-TV households.

Mr Darroch said the increase in churn was not an impediment to growth and partly reflected a rise in the proportion of Sky's customer base who only take broadband and are more likely to switch provider as a result. The company gained 140,000 broadband customers in the first half, but did not say how many satellite households it lost.

Sky is in the midst of a blazing public row with Discovery, the US media giant behind the TLC, Animal Planet and Eurosport channels, over fees. Discovery's dozen channels are due to for a blackout next week over the company's claims that Sky refuses to pay a fair prices for them.

Mr Darroch said Discovery was "just not hitting the big shows you would expect".

He did not rule out a deal before next week but said: "I would prefer to keep these sort of commercial conversations behind closed doors, I think that's where they belong. But it is what it is."

CaptainR wrote: »

Fcuk sake, just as the British and World Superbikes will be coming back for the new season. We gave €200 euro upfront to BT last year for a years subscription for the MotoGP as well as the occasional UFC night. We had races on nearly every weekend for 8 months and I was counting down for it start again.

Does BT come any cheaper with Virgin?

Libertarian Kant wrote: »

Completely agree on prices etc. but was anyone really paying for Sky for Discovery? They seem to have about 3 months content for the year at best.

SteM wrote: »

Loosing Eurosport too which will be a big deal to some people. To me it's like my gym telling me they are closing the pool but still charging me the same amount. I don't use the pool much but it's nice to dip into it from time to time.

I've checked with the team managing this change.

They have reiterated that Sky does not consider this to be a material change to a customer's terms and conditions based on the viewing figures for the channels that may be impacted. We will continue to offer the widest range of high quality, award winning factual content, both through our original commissions and through our partner channels. We also have an incredible line-up of factual programming scheduled for the beginning of next year from partners like NatGeo, History and CI, as well as a great line-up of Sky Originals.

However we recognise that some customers may not feel the same. In circumstances where an individual customer thinks that theu have been materially disadvantaged then they would be entitled to end their contract. Such customers would need to give notice of their intention to terminate the contract by calling Sky (7 days' notice for Sky+ customers or immediately for Sky Q customers) at any time in the 52 days after the change takes effect. This right would obviously not coming into play until such time as the channels are removed from the Sky platform.

SteM wrote: »

Weird post from the Sky rep about cancelling.

I've checked with the team managing this change.

They have reiterated that Sky does not consider this to be a material change to a customer's terms and conditions based on the viewing figures for the channels that may be impacted. We will continue to offer the widest range of high quality, award winning factual content, both through our original commissions and through our partner channels. We also have an incredible line-up of factual programming scheduled for the beginning of next year from partners like NatGeo, History and CI, as well as a great line-up of Sky Originals.

However we recognise that some customers may not feel the same. In circumstances where an individual customer thinks that theu have been materially disadvantaged then they would be entitled to end their contract. Such customers would need to give notice of their intention to terminate the contract by calling Sky (7 days' notice for Sky+ customers or immediately for Sky Q customers) at any time in the 52 days after the change takes effect. This right would obviously not coming into play until such time as the channels are removed from the Sky platform.

In other words, if you call up and say you will miss the channels they will let you cancel your contract.