After highly publicised spats between the two companies many will be surprised to
hear that Sky has bought Virgin Media TV for 160 million, but Sky's new acquisition has had many asking just who will benefit most from this sale.
This brings up the big question of who benefits the most when broadband providers merge.
The usual answer is that customers at the smaller company miss out since they lose their current broadband contracts or the hope of renewing their current contract in the future.
On the other hand, a merger could mean that existing customers get hold of extra services that they didn't have access to before.
For example, Virgin media customers will no doubt be rejoicing at the promise of extra HD content which will include Sky Sports HD and Sky Movies HD, all of this will cost extra but the opportunity to watch films and sporting events in HD can only be a good thing for Sky or Virgin customers.
More good news for Virgin Media customers came in the form of a press
release from the company confirming that it will be concentrating on improving its broadband deals and streaming services. All good news but Sky's dominance over the Pay TV market could spell bad news to those looking to save money.
Essentially Sky will have a huge share of the Pay TV market with BTs on demand TV service offering the only kind of competition. This could mean that Sky could charge what they want for its TV packages, but on the flip side Sky would be keen to point out that it now owns channels such as living and Virgin TV meaning it doesn't have to pay Virgin to have the channels included in its channel package passing the savings onto its customers.
On face value Virgin Media customers will no doubt benefit initially from the sale gaining new channels and promises of improved broadband and streaming services.
Yet with Sky now owning more channels than ever before the savings made could be passed on to its customers but as yet nothing is set in stone and much of this is pure speculation.
If your provider is merging with another, you could look online at home.
For example, Sky customers should look for articles with titles such as 'is Sky HD worth it?'.
The next few months will make interesting watching for both Sky and Virgin customers one thing is for sure any further spats over TV channels will be a one sided argument between Sky and well um .... Sky.