When will we have a credible alternative to Sky?

A recent report by the investment bank UBS suggests that Virgin Media customers are fed up with the service they're receiving, and given the choice would happily switch to Sky, perceiving it to offer a better service.

The survey of one thousand UK households showed that 45% of Virgin's customers would switch if they could, while 10% planned to quit as a direct result of the dropping of Sky's premium channels.

The report also suggested that Virgin Media was experiencing an "identity crisis", with its triple-play unique selling point having been taken away by Sky's new voice and broadband offerings.

"Our survey strongly suggests that Sky customers do not see Virgin as a credible alternative,' a UBS spokesperson is cited as saying. The bank added that 400,000 Virgin customers could defect to Sky.

So will we ever have a credible alternative to Sky's dominance?

I certainly hope so. Sky aren't perfect, though they seem to be the best of the limited bunch of offerings currently available.

Until digital switchover is complete in 2012, we can forget about getting high definition content terrestrially, so instead we have to look to the telecoms companies and broadcasters to provide alternatives.

Purely based on infrastructure, Virgin Media seems to be best placed to offer a decent HD alternative to Sky, but their constant legal wrangling hasn't helped the situation. It may well have done deals with content providers, but, compared to Sky's offering, it's pitiful.

BT could provide high definition content over its new Vision service if it could guarantee higher broadband speeds and a larger, or unlimited, download allowance for customers. Currently, even the maximum 8Mbps line speed just can't offer live streaming of high definition content.

By early 2008, we might finally see Freesat, a service that has been promised some free-to-air high definition content -- if from nowhere else then good old Auntie. What we don't know is how much bandwidth the service will eat up overall (it will probably carry all the duff Freeview shopping channels and then some), and what content will be available for HD. (freesat launched on 6th May 2008)

The main problem is that there just isn't much decent high definition content around in the UK at present, and what little there is Sky have the rights to. Unsurprisingly, they're holding on to it.

Nevertheless, a Sky monopoly is bad news. Sure, they talk about the huge amount of choice they offer to subscribers, but it's all coming from the same place.

I had high hopes for Virgin Media to really do something different. A lot of people must've thought the same, and signed up. Unfortunately, a lot are unhappy, and with good reason. Teething problems are one thing, but VM had better improve their offering quickly.

We don't need stupid TV adverts to try to convince us to sign up. We need a visibly credible service that offers value for money, and decent content. Otherwise, those who want HD will have no alternative but to sign up for Sky.