TVSquad

Millions of British Virgin Media customers have lost access to top programs including Lost, Battlestar Galactica, 24, and The Simpsons. On Thursday BSkyB pulled its channels from Virgin's cable television network as a result of a battle over content fees.

The Sky One channel on Virgin is one of the cable provider's most popular. So unless Virgin can work out deals to provide the same content to their subscribers on another channel, the longer the dispute continues the more angry customers they're going to have to deal with.

At this point, die-hard Simpsons fans are left with few choices. They can subscribe to BSkyB or turn to piracy. iTunes and most other online video stores that sell television episodes are only available to US customers.

[via TorrentFreak]

The UK battle for hit shows like Lost has turned in favor of Virgin Media. As posted earlier, the Virgin Media group's negotiations with BSkyB, the company that owns channels like Sky One, had stalled. The Sky One channel has had exclusive access to shows like Lost, 24, and The Simpsons. Now it is rumored that Virgin Media cut out the middle man and negotiated directly with ABC to air all three seasons of Lost via the cable company's on-demand channel.

This is good news for UK Lost viewers and Virgin Media subscribers, who were in danger of getting cut off from the show altogether this week. The on-demand deal would still delay airing of Season Three episodes until August, however. If BSkyB and Virgin Media can agree on a renewal price, there is still hope that Lost will continue uninterrupted.

The ABC/Virgin deal is expected to be announced tomorrow.

Lost fans in the UK could soon have more to complain about than slow plot development. A halt in Virgin Media's deal renewal with British Sky Broadcasting might prevent Virgin Media customers from getting the Sky One channel, which airs Lost.

If the Virgin Media group and Sky cannot agree on a renewal price, Virgin subscribers will lose access to popular shows like 24, Lost, and The Simpsons, when the current deal ends on March 1. This means that viewers would be cut off from the show midseason. To make matters worse, customers would pay the same amount for less programming should the channels be cut.

On the plus side, a deal between the two companies has already been made for Virgin Media to offer the first two seasons of Lost on demand. Customers also have the option of subscribing to Sky's television service.