Virgin Media competes with sport offering

Virgin Media has upped the ante on Sky's sports packages by offering Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and Xtra, together with 39 other digital TV channels for £26 per month.

The company says an equivalent package from Sky, based on its basic TV package with Sky Sports and a BT phone line, costs £45 a month. The package also gives customers access to on-demand content including 500 movies and a large selection of TV programmes, through Virgin Media's recent deals with HBO, Buena Vista and Alliance Atlantis.

The package is only available to those who are existing Virgin Media phone customers, an additional £11 per month, and a one-off installation fee of £25 applies. Virgin Media says the new monthly subscription fee is "not a special offer" and will not revert to higher pricing after a fixed period.

President and chief executive officer, Steve Burch, said: "At last week's launch of Virgin Media, we said we would to live up to the Virgin promise by giving consumers great products, more choice and better value. We also said we would use our product portfolio to deliver on that promise and help consumers who may be getting a raw deal from our competitors. These new services deliver on both counts. They will not be the last that do so."