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And the battle begins

Posted in Media, Mel Varley, Latest reporters' blogs August 21st, 2007 by Melinda Varley

Sky One has unveiled its ambitious autumn programming in an explosive and B-list celebrity gathering – impressed?

Sky One will be showing most of the old favourites such as 24 and Lost but has also introduced a number of new shows from the US that have already proved their popularity.

Are You Smarter Than A 10-Year Old was the most successful new series in eight years in the US. The channel has picked Noel Edmonds, king of tea-time quizzes and a self confessed member of the cosmic order.

But, as explosive as the launch was, we are yet to see the programming for Virgin 1, which is Virgin Media’s own version of ‘Sky One.’

Sky has already proved it’s a tough competitor against Virgin Media with Richard Branson’s cable operator reporting an eighth consecutive quarterly loss of £119 million in August.

More than 40,000 customers left Virgin 1 in March coinciding with the removal of Sky’s basic package on Virgin Media, including Sky One and Sky Sports.

In a bid to win customers back, or to keep them at that, Branson is launching a rival channel that will have to offer us not just something different but something spectacular.

Claudia Rosencrantz, who has spent a decade as controller of entertainment for ITV, spotted such winners as I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, X Factor and Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, is responsible for finding the shows that could help rescue Branson’s foray into the British television industry.

As director of television for Virgin Media TV, she has responsibility for the schedules of a portfolio of seven channels, including the soon-to-be-launched Virgin 1.

Her plans for the channel are to position it as a general entertainment channel and with a male skew that complement’s Living TV’s female skew.

So far the announced programmes for the channel include Eddie Izzard’s American-made series, The Riches, as well as The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a spin off from the Terminator movies.

It has also acquired a huge proportion of the Star Trek franchise allowing Virgin 1 to develop its presence online.

With the future of parent company Virgin Media the subject of much uncertainty, it is important that Virgin Media TV develops a reputation for strong programming. But will it be enough to compete against arch rival Sky One?