After a year and 7 months you wouldn’t have thought it’d happen but it’s finally back…
Television providers BSkyB and Virgin Media have reached an agreement on a long-running row over channel charges.
The deal will see Sky's basic channels return to Virgin's cable service and Virgin's channels stay on Sky.
Virgin Media - which was formed from the merger of cable TV firm NTL and Virgin Mobile - accused BSkyB of "bullying" and "arrogance".
Virgin Media had warned it would drop the Sky Basics TV package, which also includes Sky News, Sky Travel and Sky Sports News, if agreement on a new contract to replace its current one could not be reached.
Sky One includes popular series such as 24 and Lost, as well as new episodes of The Simpsons.
In April last year Virgin Media launched a High Court action against BSkyB. Virgin said it was taking action to resolve the row, claiming Sky was abusing its dominant market position. The two firms were accused of "behaving like children" by the National Consumer Council
While this is the first highly public squabble since NTL: Telewest rebranded as Virgin Media, the two companies have clashed before.
Virgin Media's biggest shareholder, Sir Richard Branson, was infuriated by Sky's decision to buy more than £1bn worth of shares in ITV after NTL, as it was then known, had declared an interest in buying it.
The Sky shareholding effectively blocked Virgin Media's takeover plans.
Sky’s half year profits till November ’07 suffered a huge fall in pre-tax profits from the dispute, falling to £121m, down from £166m a year earlier.
Sky's basic channels - including Sky1, Sky News and Sky Sports News - will return to Virgin Media on November 13 under a contract running to June 2011.
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