Virgin Media costs balloon by MEEELLIONS in wake of Brexit

Costs at Virgin Media have so far risen by £7m this year following Brexit, due to increased import costs, the company revealed in a Q&A with staff this week seen by The Register. In the quarterly "Grill", chief exec Tom Mockridge was asked if the company would revise its sales targets set prior to the EU referendum "given the …

[wyatt]

Ironic I should today receive an email saying my bill is going up by £3.49 a month. However if I'm on 'promotional offer' it won't until that term ends, is anyone not on a promotional offer with them?

I've a diary reminder to re-negotiate my bill each year. Unfortunately BT have no intention of providing FTTC in this area so am stuck with them or maybe 4G.

[TRT]

Me. And as soon as various negotiated deals I had with them expired and they refused to renew them (they didn't have the capacity for a phone line to accompany the TV & Broadband, so I was unable to get certain deals through no fault of my own), the costs started creeping up and up and up.

[Phil W]

" is anyone not on a promotional offer with them?"

Unfortunately yes. Their half price for the first 6 month type offers are only available to new customers.

Also I don't know if it's the case with call customers, but following the end of my contract with them they offered me a loyalty discount to stay however it was not for the full term of the new contract only about half of it and doesn't isolate me from price increases I guess because it's a discount and not a promotional offer strictly speaking.

[John70]

Same here so I just cancelled the TV subscription.

They tried their best to "persuade" me to keep it...

All I need is the broadband. After all you can get most of your viewing pleasure from Freeview and On Demand services.

And I never had the telephone from them.

[VinceH]

I had a letter the other week about that price increase. The first thing I noticed about it is that it doesn't break it down - which elements are increasing - telephone line rental, tv subs, broadband? One? Any combination of the two? All three?

I remarked about it on Twitter, and their social media peeps said it can't be broken down because I'm on a package - so I pointed out that it can be broken down, because although the initial bill I get is for the "package"*, I also get a VAT invoice shortly after it's paid, which I need for, er, VAT purposes, and which does indeed break it down.

* I pay a small amount each month for call barring, which is outwith the "package" but isn't itemised on the initial bill, whereas the telephone line rental *is* part of the package, and that's shown separately on the bill.

[Sandtitz]

"Same here so I just cancelled the TV subscription. They tried their best to "persuade" me to keep it... All I need is the broadband."

Here in Finland the three major ISPs are selling entertainment packages to broadband owners. Every few months my ISP calls me to sell me the film package and last time I rebuffed the caller saying how I torrent everything and tell how I'm getting the best films and telly series in glorious 4K before anyone else.

They haven't called for a long time now.

[Steve Davies 3]

They are a media company

So what Import costs?

Is this the costs of some crap US Relaity TV show or something physical. If the latter then what?

I'm sure the readership here would like to know.

[Hans 1]

Re: They are a media company

>Is this the costs of some crap US Relaity TV show or something physical. If the latter then what?

Who cares what exact imports, pound tanked, import costs go up ... mathematical, right ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They are a media company

Don't forget all the customer hardware, phones, cable modems, set top boxes etc. They're just about to start handing out their shiny new 4k STB which has probably just become 10% more expensive.

[AlbertH]

Re: They are a media company

4k STB which has probably just become 10% more expensive.

No it hasn't. The price from Taiwan has dropped by nearly 14%. The things cost almost nothing, and they're charging their customers £££ for them - they could go up by 200% and they'd still see a profit! All ISP services here in the UK are profiteering scams.

[Tom Wood]

Re: They are a media company

Fibre cable, coax, headend equipment, ...

[frank ly]

Re: They are a media company

Licensing costs for use of the 'Virgin' name? Oh, the possibilities.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They are a media company

watta loada bullshit. Costs may have risen due to incompetance , but no tarrifs have been imposed . we are still in the EU

[Mark 78]

Re: They are a media company

<quote.watta loada bullshit. Costs may have risen due to incompetance , but no tarrifs have been imposed . we are still in the EU</quote>

But the pound has fallen by approx. 10% against most currencies, so anything imported costs 10% more approx.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

fallen pound

"But the pound has fallen by approx. 10% against most currencies, so anything imported costs 10% more approx."

great news for people selling stuff abrouad then! which is supposed to be about an equal volume isnt it?

[Patrician]

Re: They are a media company

The value of the pound, against foreign currencies, has dropped due to Brexit, therefore buying imports costs more. Simple really.

[Sproggit]

Not Entirely Fair...

Yes, the value of Sterling dropped in the wake of the referendum result in June.

However,

1. The U.K. has not even triggered Article 50, let alone left the EU, so half your statement is wrong. If you had said, "due to sentiment" you would be closer to the truth.

2. Most of the post-referendum movement in Sterling (all...) has come from currency speculation. On Black Wednesday, when Norman Lamont pulled the UK out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, American Investor George Soros made over $1 Billion by shorting the Pound. In June, many people, including Soros, tried to repeat the trick. The drop in Sterling has been caused by speculators, plain and simple.

I have ZERO interest in the Brexit decision either way, but I do think it is important that we're clear on these points...

[nsld]

Re: They are a media company

"Re: They are a media company

watta loada bullshit. Costs may have risen due to incompetance , but no tarrifs have been imposed . we are still in the EU"

=============

You are Nigel Farage and I claim my £5 British Pounds prize...........

Either that or you use flavoured Windowlene

[AndrewDH]

Re: They are a media company

On the other hand the Pound is trading at a record low against the Dollar adding about 12.5% to the cost of imports. Virgin Media should have hedged but that may have run out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They are a media company

Virgin Media Business are also Tier 1 resellers for some of the big IT names.

Many companies hedge their dollar rate but VMB don't. So as soon as the sterling/dollar rate tanked, VMB passed the price rises straight onto their customers.

Anon 'cause in my day job was buy kit through VMB.

[Friendly Neighbourhood Coder Dan]

Re: They are a media company ( import costs )

I believe their main investment is importing the tons of paper that they use to spam every single household as often as humanly possible. Including those that are already with Virgin Media. That must come from abroad.

Also, the guy on their ad on the telly who can move his feet really fast must be paid in dollars, so that must have gone up too...

[John70]

Re: They are a media company ( import costs )

Yet you have to pay £2.50 for paper billing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They are a media company ( import costs )

Or, for added bonus points, posting regular sales guff to houses that can't actually receive the services because they stopped the cable 15 yards short of the end of the road!!

[Voland's right hand]

Re: They are a media company

Most likely that as well as cable equipment. The pound went down quite a bit for a while, so if there were payments due for either, they got royally screwed on the exchange rate.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They are a media company

...but some/most of the network stuff - much of the £5Bn investment - is bound to be made in Europe.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They are a media company

So you didn't notice the £ dropping against the € as well as the $?

You should go check what currency hedging is, why VM not having it is important. Might reduce the shock when other gb businesses currency protection runs out next year and prices start rising for everything. For a country with ~75% food self sufficiency (if we stop exporting food) that's bad news the voters won't like.

[TheVoodooRay]

Virgin Media have increased the monthly bill for my fibre by £3.50 - for the 3rd year in a row.

Each year I call them up, threaten to leave and they reduce my bill. It's great.

[Commswonk]

Another Illustration of the Fact...

...that the UK electorate was supposed to vote on the basis of "what was good for business", not on each individual's own interpretation of what was best for them and the wider UK community.

The fact that in this case it is an American business that is "complaining" merely makes the whole thing worse.

If Brexit means that the UK goes to the back of the queue to have TTIP imposed on it then so much the better, because by all accounts TTIP would result in the UK having to pay more or less permanent homage to US corporate interests. If my reading of the wider news is correct even the EU seems to have spotted that one...

[Lee D]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Why the hell is any employer trying to tell its employees how to vote?

That's just rude, condescending, and surely must be against the rules, no?

What next? Are HR digging through all the people who DIDN'T vote in the companies interest for some "special attention"?

Personal politics and being an employee or employer have precisely nothing to do with each other.

[Richard Jones 1]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

I am divided by this point.

Think about it if you worked for a company that would be adversely affected by a political policy promising to make their activity illegal. In that case it would be sensible to advise you that you might be directly impacted by the vote, as your job would exist any more.

Note in the carefully crafted example that would not be a threat, but a statement of fact.

In the VM case the 'costs' of Brexit appear marginal and within the range of business variables that a well run company should normally be expected to handle.

[Hans 1]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

>In the VM case the 'costs' of Brexit appear marginal and within the range of business variables that a well run company should normally be expected to handle.

News flash: Brexit has not yet started, shit, has not even been DEFINED.

[Patrician]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

But the affects of the vote in favour of an EU exit are being felt now; the pound has already lost around 10% of it's value against foreign currencies for instance.

[Paul Shirley]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

But the affects of the vote in favour of an EU exit are being felt now; the pound has already lost around 10% of it's value against foreign currencies for instance.

Thanks to currency hedging the effects of currency fluctuations aren't being felt by most companies yet and by almost none of the public, to remain competitive companies without protection can't afford to pass on the change till their competitors are equally affected. That won't last forever, effects might even start before A50 is signed.

Most people probably aren't worrying much about the stock market reaction either, after all it panics all the time but more because they forget where their pensions are invested.

[AndrewDH]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Most of the hedges that are in place will run out later this year early next year. Companies like John Lewis have already made this clear.

Ironically much of the current buoyancy in UK retail sales figures is tourists coming to the UK and snapping up luxury goods at a 12% discount because of the pounds depreciation after the Brexit vote. This will only last as long as the hedges that ate in place. Most Brexiteers however think its all good and business as usual.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

"News flash: Brexit has not yet started, shit, has not even been DEFINED."

True, but tell that to the foreign exchange markets, not us.

[AndrewDH]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

True but the FX market and the Bond markets have reacted as if it has and they are the two markets that really count, the FTSE is largely irrelevant.

[Len]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

You could argue that the boundaries should be somewhere between advising employees how to vote and advising that outcome X will have an adverse effect on the company.

Any business can be affected by outside events, whether they are earthquakes, tsunamis, military coups, rampant inflation, massive currency fluctuations etc. and one could argue that the EU referendum and its potential vote for Brexit was one of those external events that could have a major impact on the company. In contrast to a tsunami there is some control a business can exert over the outcome of a referendum and so they chose to do what they could.

Here's a thought, if a business (who employees have a fairly important relationship with considering they spend a substantial of time of the day week there, they provide their income and thus whose well-being its employees depend on) couldn't advise them how to vote, why should some random newspaper advise them how to vote?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

"Any business can be affected by outside events, whether they are earthquakes, tsunamis, military coups, rampant inflation, massive currency fluctuations etc. and one could argue that the EU referendum and its potential vote for Brexit was one of those external events that could have a major impact on the company."

Spot the one which the employees could influence by their vote.

[tfewster]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

> Why the hell is any employer trying to tell its employees how to vote?

If a company feels Option A is best for its survival and therefore its staffs continued employment, it seems reasonable to recommend employees vote for Option A in their own best interests. OTOH, if it's purely for the shareholders/execs/customers benefit, they run the risk of pushing their peons into voting the other way ;-)

[werdsmith]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

The company doesn't tell employees how to vote. It tells them what result it believes would be best for their business.

The employees can vote for whoever they like, it's a secret ballot after all.

[Fibbles]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

The employees can vote for whoever they like, it's a secret ballot after all.

It's not as secret as you might think. There needs to be some sort of tracking mechanism to aid in investigations of electoral fraud.

Each ballot slip has a serial number and records are kept matching voters to serial numbers. The slips themselves are stored in a government warehouse for a year before being destroyed.

It's very possible for the government to find out who you voted for. Considering the reports of lax security around the used ballot slips it wouldn't surprise me if, after greasing the right palms, private parties could find out who you voted for.

[Len]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Who says there needs to be a form of tracking on the ballot paper? It is illegal in many countries to have numbered ballots and many of those countries have much better functioning democracies than the UK ever had. If fraud prevention was such as serious matter in the UK there would be an ID requirement at the polling station. Again, a legal requirement in many democracies but not in the UK. Right now, there is nothing stopping you from voting in the name of your neighbour in the morning and in your own name in the evening. There is no way a polling station clerk would remember your face as someone who has already voted.

An interesting extra, it is actually illegal for the UK to number the white ballot papers for the EP elections because the franchise comes from the EU and they don't allow numbered ballots. The EU explicitly requires EP elections to be secret. Liberty have complained about the UK's lack of secret ballots but they have focused mainly on the UK's General Election. Nobody has take the case of the illegal EU ballots to the High Court, yet.

[IsJustabloke]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

@Fibbles

I have that conversation with the people in the polling office every single time I vote and they really do not understand. :/

[Wensleydale Cheese]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

"The employees can vote for whoever they like, it's a secret ballot after all."

That raises a very serious question about any future plans to introduce voting by the internet.

Are you happy with the prospect of voting via an ISP who spends serious money on political campaigns?

[AndrewDH]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Do you ever drink in Wetherspoons or suck up dust with a Dyson. They both supported leaving. Personally I am boycotting Wetherspoons but thats not particularly hard.

[Anonymous Coward]

No secret ballots for those whose data is public.

Those who have access to your phone, email and computer data can know who you voted for, who you would vote for and even if you do not believe that they do.

[IsJustabloke]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

"it's a secret ballot after all"

is it?

When I go to vote, they write the serial number of the ballot paper they've just given me against my name address on the big electoral role.. so while it's very remote, a sufficiently motivated person could find out how I voted so no, it's really not a secret ballot.

[I am the liquor]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

So you should ask yourself, "Is this good for the company?"

[Voland's right hand]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Why the hell is any employer trying to tell its employees how to vote?

Depends on the nature of business.

Example 1 - your business is European Patent law (as my SWMBO) and the company will close doors within a year of the execution of a hard Brexit due to key functions moving to Munich. No need to recommend the employees how to vote - just state the f*** fact (as the company she used to work for at the time actually did - they are one of the very few I know who were honest about it).

Example 2 - your business is automotive production and falling back to WTO tariffs means that it just stopped being profitable so in the event of a hard Brexit you will close the factory and bugger off to Romania to build them there. Again, no need to recommend employees how to vote. Clearly stating the fact instead of manifesting proverbial Far Eastern politeness by lying in their face that "the company has a continuous commitment to its workforce and manufacturing base in the UK". Just to be followed by serving the reality cold and with a vengeance several months later to the PM.

Example 3 - any of the high tech companies with Eu HQs in UK. Telling the employees that in the event of a BrExit the local UK profit base is insufficient to sustain the HQ and the company will no longer be able to claim the UK HQ, Support and R&D functions as a vaild pre-tax business expense on Eu income. Again, no need to recommend the employees how to vote. Unfortunately, lying about commitment to the great local [Cisco | CA | Oracle | Microsoft | etc ] workforce was preferred. All of this while at the same time sharpening the HR long knives (and some of it already being executed).

That, however, is different from telling them how to vote. It is telling them what the real effect would be and being honest about it. In the case of Virgin media there is no excuse for what they did.

[AndrewDH]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Actually its not entirely true to suggest that Virgin Media won't be impacted. They are a licensed regulated service, they operate in Ireland. The regime for licensed regulated media services is similar to the Finance passports. When we leave the EU VM will probably require a passport to operate in Ireland. They could switch Country locations for the HQ which would solve the problem but that would also have an impact.

[Jess]

Re: If Brexit means that the UK goes to the back of the queue to have TTIP imposed on it

I think it has promoted us to the front of the queue, because the cheerleaders for the treaty are basically our government. The rest of the EU didn't like the loss of national sovereignty, and without us pushing it, it is dead in the water.

Now our government will be free to use the TTIP as a template. (Or go back to square one and negotiate something else for seven or eight years.)

My guess we will have our own UK-US TTIP signed before the ink is dried on the Brexit decree absolute, unless pressure from us stops them.

[Len]

Re: If Brexit means that the UK goes to the back of the queue to have TTIP imposed on it

I think a post-Brexit US-UK deal will be fairly different from the US-EU deal called TTIP. After all, in TTIP the US is the junior partner because the EU has the larger market and economy. In a post-Brexit US-UK deal the UK will be a very junior partner and it will be the US dictating the contents of the agreement.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

"If Brexit means that the UK goes to the back of the queue to have TTIP imposed on it then so much the better"

Assuming TTIP doesn't get imposed before Brexit I'd guess we'd be in front of the queue. All this thrashing about to negotiate new trade treaties is going to leave us vulnerable to being screwed like this. It wouldn't surprise me if we were lumbered with TTP as well, just in case there are bits in TTIP which are less disadvantageous to us.

[AndrewDH]

Re: Another Illustration of the Fact...

Unfortunately for that theory the EU's TTIP negociations with the US are collapsing as I type making it more likely that we will jump to the front of a non existent queue. Boris and the Brexiteers are TTIP fans.

But don't worry there is are two rather bigger issues to resolve first. Firstly we have to leave the EU, then secondly we have to re-establish our WTO quotas and tariffs, we have none at the moment and joy of joys that will require us to start negotiating with the EU immediately after having finished the first round. We will need to extract our share of the quota allocated to the EU as a whole from the EU. Oh and we will need to re-negotiate our tariffs with the WTO, who as a highly political consensus based organisation are tricky at best to to deal with. The "experts" dont expect us to get any change out of 5 years with a decade being a more likely timeline,

Then and only then can we start negotiating all those amazingly lucrative trade deals Fox and Davis want us to think are just around the corner. By that time most of the people who voted to leave will be dead anyway which will be some sort of delayed justice.

[HmmmYes]

I get about 4-5 very large bits of junk mail from Virgin. Every month!

Assuming everyone else receives a similar amount then the extra money is down to postage + print.

[Steve Davies 3]

VM junk mail

make very good firelighters. I have a pile of around 40 of the things ready for the winter.

Hey, they are free so stop whining

[Vulch]

Re: VM junk mail

Indeed. I shred them first and add some ripped up Amazon cardboard on top. Nice cheerful fire in seconds.

[Doctor Syntax]

"I get about 4-5 very large bits of junk mail from Virgin. Every month!"

We seem to be off their list now. I think they've finally realised that they have no cable or fibre near here not any likelihood of installing any (last time some work was done on the gas mains the team doing it were horrified when they discovered how tough the rock was just below the road surface). It seems that our neighbours who had Virgin boradband were encouraged to leave.

[Lee D]

Me too.

Ironically, I do HAVE Virgin media for TV, broadband and (never answered it) phone.

I file it in the recycling bin directly.

The amount of money printed and wasted and then moved directly to my recycling bin must be enormous when you scale it up to the rest of the country. Local papers is another source of kindling. And unaddressed "IMPORTANT WATER INFORMATION" envelopes which I've reported a couple of times because they are basically trying to defraud little old ladies into thinking their water softeners are something official supplied or required by the water board or similar.

That said, I like to pick out the ones for the local tuition centres, correct their English (one of them misspelled "Introductory" in the sentence "Introductory Lessons In English" - I was pissing myself) and post it back to them or splat it over Facebook.

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it best to send to their registered office (not their junk mail handlers, who have no interest in removing you from their database) in a plain envelope with a Royal Mail 'Signed For' label on it, and nothing else, making sure you mark the original envelope as 'refused'. That way, not only do they have to pay the postage, including the cost of the 'Signed For' but you have a way of tracking when it was delivered. For bonus points, write 'First Class' where the stamps should be. I've done the same with the unaddressed recycling that Royal Mail used to drop off once a week, after the third £50 per item handling fee invoice enclosed, it stopped - not had any in over eighteen months.

[Wensleydale Cheese]

"I get about 4-5 very large bits of junk mail from Virgin. Every month!"

Hmm. Liberty Global in my bit of Europe charges a quid or two a month for printed invoices.

[Martin hepworth]

following Brexit????

Following the Brexit vote - surely

No one's pulled the trigger on this yet, so we have no Brexit just yet, merely the threat of it.

[Lee D]

Re: following Brexit????

Next year before anyone has said they'll push the button.

Two year process AT BEST after that.

Just in time for the next elected sucker to deal with the consequences.

Coincidence?

[Mutton Jeff]

Dont Liberty Meeja report in $$$s?

They must be ker-chinging it in.

[Anonymous Coward]

VM Television is fairly pants

but if you have broadband (and where I am VM supply 100Mb broadband) then you don't really need the TV package ...

[wolfetone]

Re: VM Television is fairly pants

The mother-in-law-to-be has Virgin, and has the TiVo box. I don't understand how they could put this in to the home of people? It's slow to load the guides, it's hard to navigate the listings. It's just an awful, awful experience. Then you get the whole "There's been an unexpected problem with this channel".

I have, reluctantly, signed up to BT Infinity as they were a few quid cheaper than Virgin for the same service. The internet is good, it hasn't gone down in the 9 months I've had it. But the YouView box is actually really nice. It's easy to use, responsive, it's everything that the Virgin TiVo isn't. Plus it's handy that the extra channels I pay £10 a month for are sent via the internet, meaning I can plug in a YouView box upstairs and watch the same channels at no extra monthly cost.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: VM Television is fairly pants

Having been a TiVo user since virtually the start of series 1 devices being available in the UK I don't think I'd want to switch from it but I have to admit that over recent months the performance of our TiVo has become very slow ... I suspect that a recent "software update" may be related this which, as usual, seems to have added a load of features that are margianlly useful at best.

[werdsmith]

Re: VM Television is fairly pants

The TiVo is slow, but it's not the same as a BT TV box. Tivo gets cable TV up a coax cable, whereas the BT box uses the broadband ADSL line and gives the ability to record 3 channels at one etc.

VM users are free to use whatever available service they like with the 100Mb+ broadband that VM deliver - NowTV, Amazon, Chromecast, Apple etc.

[Known Hero]

Re: VM Television is fairly pants

@werdsmith, RE:Free to use whatever ???

Unfortunately not true, when I'm streaming on twitch, my mate on virgin media constantly buffers and drops connection during peak hours even @480p when he switched over to steam streaming 1080p Perfect.

Others were able to view my twitch stream perfectly @1080p on a variety of other ISP's. last time he tried my twitch was about 3 months ago, but this has been going on for ages not a one off.

My problem then lies at the issue that there is no need for packet shaping as the area is not congested yet they choose to do so anyway. I will personally never recommend Virgin Media, coupled along with the fact that my mate is still being hit by bandwidth limitations during peak hours on a supposedly "unlimited line".

[Jason Bloomberg]

Re: VM Television is fairly pants

VM TV offering isn't that bad, neither is the TiVo, though it is true that UI responsiveness has slowed ridiculously in recent months and is getting quite annoying now.

The price increase is just over 8% for my package. The cost of USD priced items have risen around 15%. I expect 'VM UK' will be paying for using 'VM US' sourced services. I don't know if that's a fair increase or not but it's still cheaper for me than what others offer.

At least they didn't spin the latest increase as if it were 'great news' for customers which they have had a tendency to do in the past.

[Unep Eurobats]

Virgin costs balloon

Had to read that a couple of times. I thought they were budgeting Richard's next round-the-world flight.

[Charlie Clark]

Note to editors

Companies have "employees", "personnel", "staff". They do not have "staffers" or "new hires". These are made up words by the same people who brought us "pre-order" for "reserve" or simply "order". KISS.

[Roger Greenwood]

Re: Note to editors

Thanks for reaching out.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Note to editors

Thanks for reaching out.

You're welcome. Let's try and touch base over the new incentivisation onboarding proposals…

[Mage]

focused more on consumer in Ireland

Which is totally bizarre.

Chorus and NTL (NTL was what Branson bought in UK and turned into Virgin and the original company lives on as Arqiva, running transmitters and sat links) were terrible. UPC only spent millions rebranding to UPC using their Dutch logo* AFTER fixing the Irish cable companies they bought. UPC developed a good reputation (compared to Sky for TV or Eir/Eircom for Broadband). Then they throw that away by rebranding as a UK company with a poor reputation that they don't even own the brand for?

Will they rebrand back to their native UPC brand in Ireland after Brexit?

Since successfully rebranding as UPC, Sky had to resell Eir broadband (probably at a loss to sell a bundle with Sky Satellite, which makes a huge profit), UPC also bought TV3 and UTV Ireland in Ireland, Sky bought UTV's Sport/talk station in UK so now also owns all the previously owned by UTV local Radio stations.

TV and Radio stations take overs should not be allowed by pay TV platform operators, especially FTA ones.

Pay TV channels should not be exclusive to a Pay Platform.

Content should not be exclusive to any Pay TV channel.

The Consumer is getting abused!

Comreg, Ofcom, BCI, Etc are all asleep. UK has shown unwillingness to regulate Sky or their crazy EPG charges, which result in Freesat being overpriced for EPG too.

[*Though UPC is owned by US Liberty and thus is no more Dutch than I am]

[Version 1.0]

You never let a serious crisis go to waste

I suspect that we can expect that "Brexit" costs requiring a price increase will become commonplace. The fact that Berexit has not actually happened yet is immaterial to the marketing folk.

[Alien8n]

Re: You never let a serious crisis go to waste

Brexit may not have happened yet but there has been a definite shift in the economy as the world gears up ready for it. Those increased costs are happening now, not in 2 years time, and need to be passed on now where appropriate. Any company that has to import from abroad is affected by this, how many companies do you think manufacture in China? Every shipping container now costs 7% more and unless your margins are high enough (like Apple) then that cost needs to be passed on or businesses suffer. And those costs will increase again post-Brexit once import tariffs get added on for anything imported from the EU, as well whatever tariffs are then imposed as a result of having to renegotiate with every single other country out there.

[J. R. Hartley]

"Terrific presence"

The cunt pays no tax!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I call bullshit on this

This is nothing less than price gouging using the threat of Brexit as an excuse.

Until article 50 is invoked there is no change to Britain's position in the EU therefore the supposed greater costs are just bullshit from a company that is trying it on to raise profits.

[Jess]

Re: I call bullshit on this

So the pound hasn't dropped?

Though to be fair, if when article 50 is invoked, it is made clear that EEA membership is the target and the pound recovers, I bet the savings won't be passed on.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: I call bullshit on this

"Until article 50 is invoked there is no change to Britain's position in the EU"

I call bullshit on your bullshit. The pound was affected straight-away and that's what raises costs.

[wikkity]

10% rise over 10 years

When I moved into my current home just over 10 years ago we paid £30 a month. We've not added anything but an addition box when we kept the V+ box when they forced us to move to a tivo. They've added a few channels that we don't watch and increased the broadband speed (nothing we asked for).

10 years later the monthly bill for the package was £76 (sans additional extras like phone calls, etc.), I think that works out around 11% per year. I say 'was', as soon as I found out about another price increase I went phoned and went switched to the basic package and they gave me £60 credit towards the price increase.

That last above inflation rise was enough to motivate me to doing something I've been meaning to do for ages and has cost them about £480 form me for the next year.

[Wolfclaw]

I smell an excuse for a massive price hike to keep the Yank owners happy !

[deconstructionist]

eh we are still in last time i checked

Thing is we have not exited so how are any costs related to brexit .....because the pounds dipped ! nice spin ....try routing my broadband correctly and by that I mean not using cheap teir Europe connections that pool VM users with Russian isp's .

It Does not matter if you have the fastest runner if he has to run 3 times the distance to get anywhere.

[weebz]

Complete rollox

VM increase their tariffs every year if not bi/tri-annualy this is just an excuse to try and make it look as if it's the customers fault, rather than hiking the price for a few extra channels that no one would pay for and an increase the headline download speeds that are never consistent enough to warrant a charge.

TIVO is a terrible interface although it has slightly improved, however it was an old system prior to being rolled out with VM. Couple that with what has already been alluded to become painfully slow, hanging between 'my shows' and 'tv guide' to 'on-demand services'.

[Tom Paine]

"Tom Mockridge"

Now there's a name to conjure with... anyone remember the phone hacking connection?

[Anonymous Coward]

What a pile of horse shit!

"Costs at Virgin Media have so far risen by £7m this year following Brexit, due to increased import costs, the company revealed in a Q&A"

Either they're a bunch of F@#k-wits or they think everyone else is!

Brexit has not happened yet and will not for at least another two and a half years!

What they really mean to say is that they made a complete pigs ear of their cost estimates and are now lamely trying to blame it on something that hasn't even happened yet rather that admit that they made a monumental balls up!

Either that of they have moved Einsteins theory on substantially and travelled 3 to 4 years into the future to discover this information and then travelled back to share with us the wisdom brought by their foray into the future.

2 major things wrong with my theory though!

1. If they had really travelled 4 years into the future would the most valuable thing that they could share be that they had made such a gaff with their budget? You really should have the privilege of time travel if that's the best you can do with it - think of all the things you could do! Have you never seen Back To The Future?

2. If they really had travelled forward in time and had a accurate handle on their lame accounting then the figure would be more like 70 million not 7.

[Grunchy]

I am growing my mullet. Thanks to you Sir Branson for your teechings!