A bitter dispute between Sky and Virgin Media over the price of screening shows such as hit drama Lost on Virgin's cable
TV channel was settled yesterday with new deals and an agreement by both sides to drop their high court actions.
Sky pulled channels including Sky1, Sky News and Sky Sports News from Virgin Media homes in March last year after a row over the price the cable company should pay to broadcast them.
The Sky channels will now return to
Virgin Media's 3.5m cable TV households on November 13 and a second deal will allow the continuation of broadcasting of Virgin Media channels on Sky.
At the time Sky pulled its basic channels from Virgin Media, the third season of Lost disappeared from the cable TV channel's screens mid-series and majority shareholder Sir Richard Branson complained that
BSkyB was trying to "strangle at birth" Virgin Media, which was formerly known as NTL.
The dispute over basic channels heightened an already contentious relationship between the two, with Sky's controversial move to buy a 17.9% stake in ITV at the end of 2006 effectively scuppering the then NTL's hopes of merging with ITV.
A raft of viewers deserted Virgin Media and the cable channel launched high court proceedings against Sky, claiming it was abusing its dominant position in the pay-TV market. Sky ran a series of anti-Virgin Media promotions, which last month Ofcom ruled had broken the regulator's broadcasting code. The dispute was, however, not without cost to Sky - the loss of Sky1 from Virgin Media's 3.5m households stripped away about one-third of the entertainment channel's audience.
"We are pleased to bring our carriage negotiations with Sky to a successful close," Virgin Media's chief executive, Neil Berkett, said yesterday.
The BSkyB chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, said: "This is great news for Sky and Virgin Media customers alike."
Virgin and Sky settle differences at last. 
