Virgin Media has signed a deal with ABC, the US producer of 'Lost', to offer the show as part of its video-on-demand service. Customers will be able to watch all three seasons for a fee on demand.
The move could go some way to help it to retain customers who might be tempted to leave Virgin Media when Sky pulls five channels on Thursday, as it is expected to. The channels under threat include Sky One, which screens top shows such as '24', 'Lost', 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'The Simpsons'.
Sky is demanding more for the channel package, which also includes Sky News and Sky Sports News, it offers Virgin Media to reflect the investment it has made in its channels, including its flagship entertainment channel Sky One. Overall, it says it is now investing £200m a year -- a 68% increase. This investment includes paying an estimated £1m an episode for 'Lost' and co-producing 'Battlestar Galactica' with NBC Universal's Sci-Fi Channel.
Sky is asking for a 30% increase, which Virgin Media is refusing to pay and sources quoted by The Observer said that neither side expect talks to resume. This will mean a potentially highly damaging loss of service to Virgin's 3.3m customers on Thursday, who will be cut off mid-season from some of TV's hottest shows.
In a statement issued this morning, Sky said it was still in discussions with Virgin Media about the carriage of its Sky basic channels. It claims it is offering more to Virgin than ever before, including HD services and new channels such as Sky Three and Sky Arts.
"Despite the constructive approach adopted by Sky throughout these negotiations, the recent behaviour of Virgin Media appears at odds with a genuine desire to conclude a commercial agreement and at this time there exists the real possibility that agreement will not be reached before expiry of the current contract at midnight on 28th February, 2007.
Jeremy Darroch, chief financial officer at Sky, said: "We are disappointed that Virgin Media appear to have walked away from negotiations. Sky offered more channels to Virgin Media than ever before. We have invested in developing our channel offering and sought a fair price, which reflects that fact. With three days still to go before the deadline, we hope that Virgin Media will focus on getting a deal done rather than on their PR offensive."
Even with Virgin's deal with ABC to offer 'Lost' as a download option, customers will have to wait until August to catch the rest of the drama, or switch to Sky.
Sky will this week launch an advertising campaign to capitalise on the fact that the only place to watch the likes of '24' will be on its service.
The move could go some way to help it to retain customers who might be tempted to leave Virgin Media when Sky pulls five channels on Thursday, as it is expected to. The channels under threat include Sky One, which screens top shows such as '24', 'Lost', 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'The Simpsons'.
Sky is demanding more for the channel package, which also includes Sky News and Sky Sports News, it offers Virgin Media to reflect the investment it has made in its channels, including its flagship entertainment channel Sky One. Overall, it says it is now investing £200m a year -- a 68% increase. This investment includes paying an estimated £1m an episode for 'Lost' and co-producing 'Battlestar Galactica' with NBC Universal's Sci-Fi Channel.
Sky is asking for a 30% increase, which Virgin Media is refusing to pay and sources quoted by The Observer said that neither side expect talks to resume. This will mean a potentially highly damaging loss of service to Virgin's 3.3m customers on Thursday, who will be cut off mid-season from some of TV's hottest shows.
In a statement issued this morning, Sky said it was still in discussions with Virgin Media about the carriage of its Sky basic channels. It claims it is offering more to Virgin than ever before, including HD services and new channels such as Sky Three and Sky Arts.
"Despite the constructive approach adopted by Sky throughout these negotiations, the recent behaviour of Virgin Media appears at odds with a genuine desire to conclude a commercial agreement and at this time there exists the real possibility that agreement will not be reached before expiry of the current contract at midnight on 28th February, 2007.
Jeremy Darroch, chief financial officer at Sky, said: "We are disappointed that Virgin Media appear to have walked away from negotiations. Sky offered more channels to Virgin Media than ever before. We have invested in developing our channel offering and sought a fair price, which reflects that fact. With three days still to go before the deadline, we hope that Virgin Media will focus on getting a deal done rather than on their PR offensive."
Even with Virgin's deal with ABC to offer 'Lost' as a download option, customers will have to wait until August to catch the rest of the drama, or switch to Sky.
Sky will this week launch an advertising campaign to capitalise on the fact that the only place to watch the likes of '24' will be on its service.
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