Virgin Media takes on competitors with new TV sports offer

For just £26 a month, Virgin Media is offering sports fans Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and Xtra, together with 39 other digital TV channels including E4, CBeebies and ITV2.

For no extra cost, customers also get access to one of Europe's largest TV-on-demand libraries, containing over 500 movies and thousands of hours of TV programmes such as Lost, Desperate Housewives, Dr Who, Planet Earth and The Vicar of Dibley, as well as highlights from the previous week's broadcast schedules.

Thanks to recent content deals with HBO, Buena Vista and Alliance Atlantis, Virgin Media is also giving its customers the chance to access to smash hits The Sopranos, Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, Alias and CSI: Miami.

The Sky Sports offer is open to anyone with an £11 Virgin Media phone line, which includes unlimited weekend calls to any UK landline number (starting 01 or 02). An equivalent package from Sky, based on its basic TV package with Sky Sports and a BT phone line, costs £45 a month.

This new monthly subscription fee is not a special offer and will not revert to higher pricing after a fixed period. A one-off installation fee of £25 applies.

Commenting on the new offer, 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."