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"NTL" and "Virgin.net" redirect here. For other uses, see NTL (disambiguation).
Virgin Media Inc. (formerly known as NTL:Telewest, comprising a merger of NTL Incorporated with Telewest Global, Inc.), an Anglo-American company based mainly in the UK, became the first "quadruple-play" media-company in Britain, bringing together a so-called "Quad Play" service consisting of television, Internet, mobile phone and fixed-line telephone services. While the company has its headquarters in New York City, its activities focus heavily on the United Kingdom, with operational headquarters in Hook, North Hampshire.
HistoryTelewest (1984-2006)Telewest originated in Croydon in 1984 under the name of Croydon Cable. The company later became known as "Telewest Communications" before dropping the latter word in a re-brand.[1]
Telewest also provided the broadband service 'Blueyonder', using the same cable-system as the television-service. NTL (1993-2006)Image:NTL logo.png The NTL logo Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal, the founders of the cellular network company Cellular Communications, Inc. (sold to Airtouch in 1996), established International CableTel in 1993. They founded CableTel in order to take advantage of the deregulation of the UK cable market. Initially, Cabletel acquired local cable-franchises covering Guildford and parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In 1996 CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited (NTL), the privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission-network. In 1998 CableTel adopted "NTL" as its new name. The company spent heavily on expanding its network and on acquisitions including the consumer cable division of Cable and Wireless for $10bn, which was was partly paid for by a $5.5bn investment from France Telecom. The company also began to expand outside the UK in 2000, buying into markets on continental Europe and in Ireland.
Devalued and struggling with debts of around $18bn, NTL had to seek Chapter-11 bankruptcy-protection in May 2002 in order to organise a refinancing deal. The company did not emerge from protection until January 2003, having converted around $11 billion of debt into shares. Technically, this amounted to the largest debt default in US corporate history. The company reduced its debt to $6.4bn. A re-organisation split NTL itself into NTL Inc. (covering the UK and Irish markets) and NTL Europe Inc. (for the French, Swiss and German parts of the corporation). New executives replaced the NTL president, CEO and co-founder Barclay Knapp, as well as Stephen Carter, the MD and COO. After exiting from Chapter-11 protection, NTL produced an operating profit. In 2004 it announced plans to split its broadcasting division off from the main company. In December 2004 NTL sold its broadcast-unit to a consortium led by Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCG) for £1.27 billion. (Macquarie renamed the division Arqiva in May 2005.) This sale allowed NTL to focus on its "core businesses" of providing communications packages and cable-services. In autumn 2004 NTL purchased the remaining shares of the Internet service provider (ISP) virgin.net, originally a joint venture between NTL and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.[2] By 2005 NTL's UK network consisted of a 7,800 km fibre backbone with the potential to reach 8.4 million residential homes and around 610,000 businesses. In January of that year, NTL started rolling out Video On Demand. With content selected by NTL, this service covered genres including music videos, children's programming and adult entertainment. This provided an extension to the basic "pay per view" services the company offered for film and sport content. The new service allowed customers to rewind, fast-forward and pause content. Despite NTL Ireland turning a profit, in May 2005, NTL sold its Dublin, Galway and Waterford cable business (which it had acquired in 1999 for €825 million from the Irish government) to UGC Europe for €325 million; this after having spent in excess of €100 million on network infrastructure (i.e. making a gross loss of €500 million — more than 50% — over what it had paid). As of September 2006 Liberty continues to use the NTL brand in Ireland. By July 2005, NTL had cut its debt to £1.445 billion, with an operating cashflow of £178 million. The company had 3.2 million customers buying at least one service from it, with the 1.4 million subscribers to broadband services making NTL the market leader in this field. NTL InternetAfter trials in the Guildford area from summer 1999, NTL launched its original broadband services at the same time that NTL acquired the Cable business of Cable and Wireless (spring 2000). In the "original NTL" (also known as "Langley") areas, NTL has always supplied broadband services via DOCSIS cable-modems. In these areas the digital television set-top boxes (STBs) used an incompatible standard, DAVIC. The roll-out of broadband services in the ex-Cable and Wireless franchises started in mid-2001. Initially, NTL provided ex-Cable and Wireless subscribers with broadband through the set-top box also used for digital television services, adopting the rationale that subscribers could self-install. Accordingly, NTL supplied a "Self Install Kit" consisting of connecting cable, adapters and an install-CD. Following demonstrated problems, NTL gradually introduced cable-modems and phased out the self-install approach, The Pace STBs proved highly problematic, exhibiting two major flaws:
Although capable of higher speeds (up to 4Mbps), NTL did not make speeds higher than 1Mbps available — due to degradation of the digital television (DTV) service. NTL eventually replaced the Pace set-top boxes with Samsung models which used a dual-processor architecture, overcoming the shortcomings of the Pace, and which could give much better downstream performance. However, with the advent of higher "Tiers of Service" of 10Mbps downstream and higher, plus the reducing cost of NTL's cable modems (supplied by Ambit Broadband) NTL came to supply all subscribers with cable modems. A historical view of NTL cable modems appears here. Virgin.netVirgin.net operated as an Internet service provider (ISP) in the UK from November 1996 onwards. Once a joint venture between NTL and the Virgin Group, the ISP became wholly owned by NTL in 2004.[2] It sold a range of ADSL broadband packages through BT landlines to those living outside areas served by NTL's cable-television network. Virgin.net broadband customers could receive up to 8 Mbit/s downstream and 400 kbit/s upstream, with usage-allowances depending on which package the user took. Virgin.net also offered bundled phone-services via Carrier Preselect (CPS) to broadband subscribers. The service offered various usage-allowances depending on which package a user took. Virgin.net also offered subscription-based and subscription-free dial-up Internet access. Prior to acquiring Virgin.net, NTL offered a similar package called NTL Freedom. On February 8 2007, the services provided by Virgin.net became integrated into the new Virgin Media brand. NTL:Telewest (March 2006-February 2007)From late 2003 discussions commenced on a merger between Telewest and NTL. Thanks to their geographically distinct areas, NTL and Telewest had co-operated previously, as in re-directing potential customers living outside their respective areas. On October 3, 2005, NTL announced a USD$6 billion purchase of Telewest, forming one of the largest media companies in the UK. The merger agreement as structured would have left NTL having to negotiate with BBC Worldwide (the BBC's commercial arm) due to a change-of-ownership clause written into the agreement for UKTV, a joint venture with Telewest's Flextech content division. To prevent this, Telewest instead acquired NTL. The parties completed the merger on March 3, 2006, making the merged company the UK's largest cable-provider, with more than 90% of the market. Once merged, the combined company renamed itself to NTL Incorporated, with ex-NTL shareholders controlling 75% of the stock and ex-Telewest shareholders 25%. Nine of the eleven directors of the new board came from NTL and two from Telewest. The merger of Virgin Mobile and NTL:TelewestIn December 2005 NTL:Telewest and Virgin Mobile announced that talks had taken place regarding a merger. Virgin Mobile's independent directors rejected the original bid of £817 million ($1.4 billion), taking the view that NTL Incorporated's bid "undervalued the business". Sir Richard Branson reportedly expressed confidence that a re-structured deal could go ahead, and in January 2006 NTL Incorporated increased its offer to £961m (372p per share). On 4 April 2006, NTL Incorporated announced a £962.4m recommended offer for Virgin Mobile. According to reports, Branson accepted a mix of shares and cash, making him a 10.7% shareholder of the combined company. The takeover completed on 4 July 2006, setting up the UK's first 'quadruple play' media company, bringing together television, Internet broadband, mobile phone and fixed-line phone services. The deal included a 30-year exclusive branding agreement that saw NTL adopt the "Virgin" name after it completed its merger with Telewest. As a result, on November 8 2006 NTL:Telewest announced it would change its name to "Virgin Media Inc". Rumoured private equity bidOn August 16 2006, The Times reported that the ntl Incorporated group could become the subject of a £10bn takeover bid from a private-equity firm consortium made up of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain, Cinven, Blackstone and Providence Private Equity, with a formal approach expected within a fortnight. The £10bn figure would include £6bn worth of debt already on the NTL balance-sheet. Additional new banking facilities would probably fund the private-equity bid. No such bid materialised whatsoever. ITV merger proposalOn Thursday, November 9 2006, NTL announced that it had approached commercial television broadcaster ITV about a proposed merger,[3] after a similar announcement by ITV.[4] BSkyB effectively blocked the merger on 2006-11-17 when it controversially bought a 17.9% stake in ITV plc,[5] a move that attracted anger from NTL shareholder Richard Branson,[6] and an investigation from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom.[7] On 2006-12-06 NTL announced that it had complained to the Office of Fair Trading about BSkyB's move, and that it would withdraw its attempt to buy ITV plc, stating that it did not believe that it could currently make a deal on favourable terms.[8] The Virgin Media eraImage:SkyAdWhole2.GIF Sky's letter counteracting Virgin Media's removal of non-premium Sky channels. NTL Group's services — previously marketed under the NTL, Telewest and Virgin.net brands — merged with Virgin Mobile under the "Virgin Media" brand on February 8, 2007, referred to by Virgin as V Day.[9] Virgin Media vs. BSkyBA channel agreement for Virgin Media to keep non-premium Sky channels ended at midnight on 1 March, 2007. Virgin Media and Sky failed to reach agreement on the issue, and Sky reacted by posting a letter to the public in major UK newspapers on 28 February 2007. Despite Sky's letter, Virgin Media blamed Sky for bullying them and forcing consumers to switch. The companies failed to resolve their differences, and subsequently after midnight on 1 March 2007, Virgin Media replaced the Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Travel, Sky Travel Extra, Sky Sports News and Sky News channel content with a standard message. If Virgin had continued to negotiate with Sky, the new deal would have included Sky Three, Sky Arts and undisclosed high definition and video on demand content. Sky said the deal would cost only 3p per customer per day (roughly £35,000,000 per year), but Virgin said that a minimum payment-guarantee included in the contract meant that the actual amount due would exceed twice the current payment.[10] Virgin Central, an on-demand service, has recently gained the rights to begin showing previous episodes of the television show Lost (already shown on Sky One), and other shows including Alias and The OC. This service extends the on-demand service previously known as Teleport TV. Teleport TV remains available, offering recently broadcasted shows and other shows and series. However, many Virgin Media customers are still angered by the fact that they can no longer view many television shows - for example Sky One is well known for being the only television channel in the UK to air new episodes of The Simpsons. On 2007-03-02 The National Consumer Council accused Sky and Virgin of "behaving like children" and stated that at the end of March 2007 it would consider whether or not to raise a super-complaint against them "that will help to knock heads together".[11] On 2007-03-05 Virgin Media threatened to take legal action against BSkyB if the matter remained unresolved in 30 days[12] ServicesVirgin BroadbandThe broadband division combines NTL's cable-broadband operations (broadband Internet access connections through cable), Blueyonder (Telewest's cable-broadband operations) and Virgin.net (ADSL; broadband internet access through a non-cable telephone line). The cable service operates through both stand-alone cable modems and television set-top boxes. Current download speeds offered to cable-users include 2 Mbit/s, 4 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s, having upload speeds of 200kbit/s, 400kbits/s, and 512kbits/s respectively. The 10 Mbit/s service will be increased to 20 Mbit/s as of 2007-05-01[13] Non-cable (ADSL) users have options of up-to 1 Mbit/s and up-to 8 Mbit/s.[14] As with all ADSL services, actual speed available varies depending on distance from the telephone exchange. Virgin Media also offers dial-up Internet services. Virgin Phone subscribers have two options; pay-as-you-go at 3p/minute,[15] or a fixed monthly fee of £14.99 for unlimited usage.[16] Subscribers with a BT telephone line have only the option of pay-as-you-go, costing from 1p/minute.[14] The cable broadband services do not have a bandwidth-cap or a fair-usage policy. This means that customers have unlimited usage and need pay no extra charges related to the amount of data downloaded. However NTL admitted introducing traffic shaping.[17] In its Q4 results Virgin Media announced plans to launch a 20Mbit/s service in the summer of 2007, and that it has started conducting 50Mbit/s residential trials as well.[18] Virgin Media reportedly started conducting trials of a 100 Mbit/s broadband service on its cable network in April 2006.[19] [20] Proxy serversWeb-browser traffic on port 80 generally gets redirected through transparent proxy servers with a view to improving browsing performance. This does not apply to any other form of traffic. Up to 15 proxy-server addresses host each area[21] The use of proxy servers (generally, not specific to Virgin Media) also causes problems for websites which use primitive methods to identify IP addresses to ban and/or track users. Users of Mac OS X can also experience incompatibilities when using some sites (including myspace.com). Virgin Media has started reviewing the proxy architecture. Similar proxy systems serve some but not all ISPs. Virgin Media started to remove the use of Proxy Servers in Spring 2007 [22] Virgin TelevisionVirgin Television, the digital cable television service from Virgin Media, currently ranks as the UK's second largest pay TV service, having 3.3m[23] subscribers, compared to BSkyB's 8.4m[24] as of Q4 2006. Virgin's network currently passes only 55% of UK households,[25] while anyone in the UK with a line-of-site view of the satellite has the ability to receive Sky's service. In areas it services, Virgin Television ranks as the number one provider of pay TV. Virgin plans to expand availability in the rest of the UK using ADSL. It plans to do this both by signing a contract with another telecoms company and by installing its own equipment in BT exchanges.[25] Although now one company this is actually made up from three existing infrastructures; Langley based 'NTL' , Bromley based 'Cable and Wireless' and Knowsley based 'Telewest' platforms. PVR and High-definition servicesVirgin Television brands its High-definition Television (HDTV) and Digital Video Recorder (PVR) service as V+. Virgin Media (when branded as Telewest) became the first UK broadcaster to offer HDTV, launching its service several months earlier than that of its chief competitor, Sky Digital. The service uses a PVR set-top-box, with three tuners and a 160-GB hard disk for up to 80 hours recording. The presence of three tuners means that V+ can record two channels at the same time while viewers watch a third. This contrasts with most other PVR systems such as Sky+, which supports only two tuners. Video on demandVirgin Media ranks as the UK's largest provider of on-demand content, with over 3 million Video on Demand (VoD) customers. The company currently brands its VOD service as "On Demand". In contrast to the proposed system from Sky Digital, Virgin Media offers a "true" VOD system. The service allows customers to stream programmes as and when they want to watch them from servers at the customer's local head-end. As the broadcaster automatically stores content on Virgin Media servers, this removes the need to pre-record many programmes. Users can search through a large library of programmes, called "TV Choice", from content providers including the BBC, Channel 4, HBO, Warner Brothers and Virgin Media Television, and watch them when they want to. Subscribers to the top TV package, Size: XL, have the content included in their subscription, while other customers can pay £5 per month for unlimited access, or pay-per-view. In addition, there is a "Catch-up" service, which includes a free 7-day watch-again feature for selected television programmes broadcast by the BBC, Channel 4 and selected Virgin Media Television channels. The service also offers over 500 films (service-branded FilmFlex), and 1000+ music-videos, mostly on a pay-per-view basis. The VOD service also provides some HD content that will work in conjunction with the V+ PVR, most of which is pay-per-view, except for BBC content which is provided at no additional cost. Virgin Media Television (formerly Flextech)Virgin Media Television, the content subsidiary of Virgin Media (formerly called Flextech), has a number of wholly-owned channels (including Bravo and LIVING). Additionally, Virgin Media Television has a 50% share in UKTV (with BBC Worldwide), and owns Sit-Up Ltd, which operates the Screenshop, bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auction tv. Virgin MobileVirgin Media (formerly NTL Inc.) owns Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) plc, the leading virtual mobile-network operator in Britain, with over 4.5m subscribers. Virgin PhoneVirgin Phone offers landline telephone services. Formerly branded as NTL Telewest, it ranks as the number-two service behind the former UK state monopoly, BT Group. Corporate affairsVirgin Media have entered into a 30-year licensing agreement with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Enterprises Limited to licence out all the relevant Virgin sub-brands for a term of 30 years, with a ten year opt-out clause.[26] Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Entertainment Investment Holdings Limited owns 34,260,959 Virgin Media common stock as of February 2007.[27] The present company formed in 2006 as a merger of the operations of Virgin Mobile and of the UK's primary cable-television operator, NTL:Telewest. Virgin Media has become the UK's largest broadband internet company, its second-largest fixed-line telephone company (after BT) and its fifth-largest mobile-phone group. It functions as Britain's second-largest pay TV provider (after BSkyB) and third-largest digital TV provider (after BSkyB and Freeview). Virgin Media dominates cable operations in the United Kingdom, controlling more than 90% of the market. Business divisionsVirgin Media operates several business divisions:
AdvertisingVirgin Media launched to much fanfare in February 2007, with a public relations event and an expensive advertising campaign which covered major UK television channels, newspapers and billboards. In an effort to increase awareness of the business and its services, Virgin Media's campaign used bright red colours to portray the brand-image. Current television-advertising features actress Uma Thurman, whilst the print-advertising features bold typography. See alsoNotes
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