Virgin Media president and CEO Steve Burch has accused Sky of acting "just like a schoolyard bully" over a breakdown in carriage negotiations that will result in Sky's basic channels being pulled from Virgin TV at the end of February.

Burch's statement in full:

"Sky is clearly shaken by the arrival of Virgin Media. Just like a schoolyard bully, they have been unnerved when confronted with tougher opposition.

"By placing a wholly unrealistic price on their content, they have made a mockery of recent negotiations and have subsequently withdrawn their basic channels from us.

"The audience for these channels has been on the slide since the start of our last agreement, by as much as a third in the case of Sky One. Bizarrely, Sky felt this less than impressive statistic justified a price hike of over 100%.

"Sky also makes a lot of money by distributing these channels to our 3.3 million customers, so their willingness to forego these massive revenues speaks volumes about their real intent, which is undoubtedly to stifle competition.

"Although some of our customers might be disappointed that Sky has chosen to deny them this choice, they can rest assured their entertainment will not suffer. We are committed to investing the significant money we're saving in fantastic new content, including major series for our TV-on-demand service, which lets viewers watch what they want, when they want.

"Virgin Central, our unique new TV channel already features whole hit series like The OC, Nip/Tuck, Grey's Anatomy and West Wing - and it's just the beginning of our TV revolution. In terms of choice, control and value, our customers will find we beat one of those ugly dishes hands down.

"Sky has been entirely unreasonable in negotiations - ie. a ridiculously high valuation placed on their channels. Their huge financial loss (circa £70m in year one) makes it clear their intention was always to deny us these channels. Sky is once again restricting competition and therefore consumer choice. They're doing it because they're scared of Virgin Media."