It's a bit of a gamble on Virgin's part but most people are bone idle and although the armchair warriors on Twitter and Yahoo are up in arms and threatening to leave, most of them won't, in fact I'd say hardly any of them will over what are essentially freeview channels anyway.
The advertisers will all be negotiating new deals with UKTV to reflect the fact that they will be watched by 40% less viewers, and this is what matters - money.
UKTV will soon realise that advertising revenue losses will far outweigh what Virgin are offering