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Sky pitch – a long time coming?

Posted in Media, Mel Varley May 18th, 2007 by Melinda Varley

It’s no surprise that Sky Networks has called a pitch for it £10 million business. After all, it’s tainted, money-grabbing reputation is in need of a major makeover not to retain customers, but to advertise its quality. 

When Sir Richard Branson and his famous ‘face of friendly capitalism’ brand Virgin entered the cable television war with Sky, it never expected to lose. Branson has been a pioneer in the British leisure market for decades and people were excited at the concept of a TV service by the UK hero.

However, things certainly took a turn for the worse when Mr Rupert Murdoch cottoned on to Branson’s UK popularity and thus a PR war began. While Virgin Media has openly admitted it is struggling to not just acquire customers for its bundled services, it’s also suffering to retain its previous NTL Telewest customers. The cable provider has lost 47,000 customers since the Sky dispute began earlier this year. 

In contrast, Sky reported a gain of 132,000 customers last week, its strongest net new customer numbers for six years. Sky however, hasn’t suffered quiet so badly on the customer front, instead its brand name has taken a ratings dive. Sky is the big bad monster of the broadcast world. Everyone knows it signed a deal with Virgin only to up the price of its flagship Sky One channel soon after the launch of its rival striking not only industry debate but also getting the Competition Commission aroused.

The pitch for the Sky business signifies not only this, but also the ailing number of people who are tuning in to watch Sky One’s famed US import Lost. Earlier this month, Lost producers announced a further three seasons. The reasons for this are beyond my understanding as the seriously lost show managed to lose most of its viewers by the end of the second season.

However, every ad we’ve seen for Sky recently has used the programme at the centre of its focus, why? A punchy strapline ‘Lost. Now found on Sky One.’ When Lost premiered on Channel 4 in 2005, it attracted over six million viewers. The second series double bill debuted in May last year with just 3.9 million, dropping to 2.8 million.

When Lost then premiered on Sky One, the double bill, drew just 1.4 million viewers, but audience figures fell to 1.2 million after the first hour. The figures remained similar throughout the series.

Sky definitely has market share when it come to pay TV, however, they’ve never defended their title until Virgin Media popped up. I think it’s not only about time they had some decent adverts, it’s about time it grew up and stopped including a public debate in its posters.