It has been widely reported this week that Sky has backed out of exclusive sales negotiations for Tiscali’s UK broadband business. This follows Carphone Warehouse’s apparent exit from the auction process a few weeks back on the basis of price and the challenges associated with integrating Tiscali’s disparate customer operations. 

The report in the Guardian this week notes that Sky and Tiscali’s Italian parent were unable to agree on price, with Tiscali looking for a price of around £600m and Sky looking to pay closer to £450m. 

The deal would immediately have made Sky Britain’s third-largest broadband provider as Sky currently have over 1.8m customers, and Tiscali have 1.77m UK customers.

Crucially, despite very attractive pricing and heavy promotion, Tiscali are losing customers in the UK.  Their high customer churn has meant that their subscriber numbers actually declined in the last quarter by nearly 40,000 subscribers.   This coupled with the deteriorating economic climate and slumping company valuations, makes Sky’s decision to apparently back out of the negotiations understandable.

But despite these issues, if Sky believe that there is strategic logic in the deal, they may well be playing a longer game.  With a notable absence of competing buyers, Sky may well be walking away, to let Tiscali stew in its own juice for a few further weeks, before returning to negotiations next year. 

One thing that seems clear is that the longer a potential buyer waits, the better terms they are likely to dictate. So don’t count Sky out of the hunt for Tiscali just yet.

Written by chris

Sky TV says 3D television could be just around the corner for British viewers.

The satellite broadcaster has said that it has successfully tested the delivery to a normal household television via their high definition set-top box.

Over the past few months Sky has been filming events using 3D camera technology including a Six Nations rugby union international that was broadcast in 3D to an audience at a theatre in London.

Sky have gone a step further by showing that 3D could be delivered into homes, through its Sky+HD set-top box, without much difficulty at all.

Lawrence Bleach of Simplifydigital says.

“Whilst 3DTV remains, for some, the subject of science fiction films from the 70s, the news from Sky would suggest the reality isn’t far away.  The great news is that it would seem this latest evolution in TV won’t require a new set top box, instead Sky are saying an existing Sky+HD box will do the job.  With other broadcasters yet to make any announcements, it may be another reason to pick Sky as your preferred digital TV provider.  Add the fact that they also have a strong broadband (up to 16Mb) and home phone offering, and Sky continues to be one of the digital service providers pushing the innovations. 

Only 3 years ago Sky launched HD digital TV, and that is fast becoming mainstream with over 600,000 subscribers to the Sky service and other broadcasters and digital TV platforms now also offering high definition services.  You wouldn’t bet against Sky being the first to the UK market with 3D and setting the pace again”

Some things to note about 3DTV is that you will need a 3D ready television set, not yet available in UK stores, and you would need to wear 3D polarising glasses but, 3DTV could be on British shores sooner rather than later - Some channels in Japan are already been broadcast in 3D whilst major TV manufacturers are currently looking at building 3DTV prototypes without the need to wear 3D glasses whilst viewing.

Written by chris

We’ve issued a press release today announcing the findings of our most recent piece of research - looking at people’s choice of home phone, broadband and digital TV providers, how long they’ve had them and some of the reasons behind people not benefiting from some of the best deals they could do.

We’re always looking for ways in which we can help people save money, so the reasons why people don’t switch and bundle their services are always really interesting to us. Here’s what we found out: 

> Cash strapped Britons are wasting £900 million by sticking to legacy deals on their digital TV, broadband and home phone services!

> Over half of you (59%) feel under pressure to save money on digital services due to the credit crunch.

> 1 in 3 people have not changed their home phone provider for over 5 years. 

> 1 in 4 of you are still buying all three services separately instead of saving £360 a year by bundling them together! That’s the equivalent of a return flight to New York or £30 a month to put back into the family budget. 

> Over 45% of consumers have not switched their broadband provider in the last 2 years and a third (33%) have not changed their home phone supplier for over five years.

> Nearly two out of three people (59%) feel under pressure to save money on digital services as a result of the credit crunch, and 63% have taken the trouble to research the market within the last 12 months, but only one in five (21%) have actually switched in the last year due to total confusion.

So why are people so confused and seemingly unable to switch and save?  Well just under 50% of people say that the reason that they have not switched is as a result of a combination of confusion as a result of too many conflicting deals available (19%), fear of the sheer time and effort required to switch (14%); and a lack of impartial advice as to where the best deals are to be found (13%).

As Charlie (our CEO) puts it, “This is where Simplifydigital can really help, it is the only company in the UK to be accredited by the regulator Ofcom to provide a completely free and impartial advisory service to help people save money on their digital TV, broadband and home phone services.”  

Enough said. Get in touch on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to the special triple-play section of our site here to find out how to help us help you make that £900 million figure smaller next time. 

PS: The full press release is available over here - we’d be interested to hear what you think of the results and the juicy bits that we’ve highlighted.

Written by Jonathan

Some more great news on the digital TV front as we hear of a deal signed between ITV and BT to enable all your favourite ITV programmes like Coronation Street and the X Factor to be watched on the BT Vision platform.

That makes BT Vision the only platform in the UK carrying catch-up services for all four terrestrial broadcasters as ITV joins catch-up programming from the BBC, Channel 4 and Five already available. You’ll just need to subscribe to the BT Vision Replay package (£3 a month) to watch content from the ITV library.

So here’s the quick sales bit. For this and other right up to the minute packages that deliver more content to you, give us a call on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to the main Simplifydigital site and see what the best package is for you.

Written by Jonathan

Virgin Media customers will once again have access to Sky channels such as Sky1, Sky News and Sky Sports News after the company signed a new channel carriage deal with BSkyB.

Virgin Media subscribers lost access to the channels at the end of February 2007 after a disagreement between the two companies that escalated over the amount that Sky wanted to charge Virgin Media to have access to the channels. 

 Sky and Virgin have since resolved the issue after Virgin agreed to pay Sky £30m per year plus yearly incentives. As such Virgin subscribers can expect to see Sky channels back on their TV’s by the 15^th of November 2008. The channels include Sky1, Sky2, Sky3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2.At the same time, Sky subscribers will continue to have access to Virgin Media TV’s basic channels, including Living, Bravo, Virgin 1 and Trouble.

Charlie Ponsonby, CEO of Simplifydigital, said: “This is a welcome end to the stand-off between Virgin Media and Sky with the customer the real winner”

Written by chris

We launched an exciting new partnership today with MSN bringing our unique Simplifydigital sales advisory service to a UK portal for the first time.

The new service, which will be hosted at MSN Money, will enable MSN users to save time, hassle and most significantly money on their broadband, digital TV and landline services. It will also provide weekly cash saving tips and advice about choosing the best digital services to suit individuals specific needs.

All the key UK suppliers are presented on the service, including 3, AOL, BT, Orange, O2, Setanta, Sky, Talk Talk, Topup TV and Virgin Media.

Alex Marks, Head of Marketing for Microsoft Advertising said: “The partnership with Simplifydigital means that MSN users will now have access to a single service that helps them find the best deal for broadband, TV and home telephone. This is great news for consumers looking to cut back on costs during the tough financial times.”

Charlie Ponsonby, CEO of Simplifydigital, said: “We are very excited to be partnering with MSN to bring this service to a major UK portal for the first time. Our unique online service supported by our experts over the phone will immediately help MSN users cut through the confusion and save money on their digital services.”

Written by lee