9 July 2007
Virgin Media customers could see their cable provider's name changed in the near future, it has been reported.
According to the Observer, the private equity company Carlyle, hot-tipped to take over the firm, is set to cut the firm's link with the Virgin brand if the deal goes ahead.
The name change is rumoured to be connected with desires to improve recent poor relationships with BSkyB after a row about the provision of its basic channels to Virgin's cable service earlier in the year.
Although the 5.5 billion private takeover deal is still not confirmed, reports suggest that Carlyle believes it may be easier to salvage the relationship with BSkyB's Rupert Murdoch if the connection with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin label were severed.
Virgin Media became the first in the UK to offer consumers a bundled deal of internet, satellite television, mobile and a fixed line phone service.
The communications firm, which was formed after a merger between NTL Telewest and Virgin Mobile earlier this year, now has three million television users, 3.4 million broadband customers, 4.1 million fixed-line telephone customers and 4.5 million subscribers to its mobile phone service.