Everyone is missing the point6 Oct 2021 06:29
It’s not necessarily SKY this could be all about COMCAST and cable ideology.
The real battle here might be in the SKY boardroom.
SKY have been saying they want to move away from satellite, I think they have been perfecting OTT services, with NOW TV. But the battle will be COMCAST cable doctrine pushing to “be more like a cable company”
now COMCAST are involved, I think they will have that cable doctrine. Moving SKY services to VMO2 for them won’t be about wholesale, it will be for SKY becoming more “like a cable company” with a mobile arm O2
SKY has a John Malone prodigy ex Virgin Media COO in charge now, this is no coincidence, writing could be on the wall.
Would not surprise me if deal already done, where COMCAST take over SKY cable, formally known as VMO2 after the dust settles
Any disruption they can cause to the incumbent in the mean time, will be what cable companies have always done. Same for other companies like Vodafone, talk talk etc they will all want to damage incumbent too.
From a BT share owner perspective, this is my worst nightmare, COMCAST / SKY don’t need to wait for full fibre, & VM can deliver FTTP very easily, mostly just 200m ish from existing street cabinets. VM wholesaling SKY (to its customer areas). Makes no sense for Virgin, unless the longer plan will be for a sellout, because competition will be so strong.
I think legacy SKY will want to continue OTT NOW TV and COMCAST / Liberty VMO2 will be planning a COMCAST takeover. Telefonica along for the ride. It’s risky for SKY, much more so than OTT strategy, but a COMCAST future could not happen without huge risk.
Who will win the boardroom battle? Cards are stacked in my opinion. VM02 upgrades cover 4/5 of uk, far more than any American equivalent. Next couple of weeks will tell us, but a wholesale deal with VMO2 doesn’t look like it’s in VMO2’s TV or Broadband businesses interest to me? So it will indicate something else? I think press are missing this crucial point…..
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