Exclusive: Virgin TV price rise "likely", says analyst

Price rises for Virgin television customers are understood to be "likely" as the company pursues a strategy of expanding its content portfolio.

At a lunch for analysts hosted by Virgin Media CEO Steve Burch yesterday it was revealed that the company expects to return to net customer additions in the second quarter of the year, with churn following the departure of Sky's basic channels expected to be relatively limited. It is understood that although call volumes to Virgin's call centres have increased since the channels were withdrawn, retention deals offered by customer service agents have been effective at persuading customers to stay with the company.

One of the analysts present at the meeting indicated that price rises for television services were considered "likely", with drops in phone prices and no change in broadband pricing expected. A Virgin Media spokesperson who was not present at the presentation told Digital Spy today that the company doesn't "have any current plans to increase TV prices" but indicated that news regarding phone prices would emerge shortly.

The indication of a possible rise in TV prices was accompanied by news of the company's interest in building its own content offerings. A desire to work closely with - but not acquire - Setanta Sports was mentioned, and it is understood that Virgin Media is in discussions with ITV to include film and soap content on the cable operator's video on demand service.