Many Virgin Media customers woke up today to find that many Sky programmes were lost to them.  A disagreement over pricing has meant that Sky has withdrawn many of its basic channels, including the popular Sky One.  Both sides are blaming the other - Virgin talks of “bullying” and “arrogance”, whilst Sky have said that they would not continue to negotiate on price.

The main losers here are the customers, who are being used as pawns by two media giants.  Neither of the two media giants can hold their hands up and say that they have put customers first, and both will need to work hard to demonstrate that they value their customers.