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Branson mulls over Virgin Media supplying utilities
Sir Richard Branson has floated the idea of Virgin Media eventually branching out into utilities, with customers receiving a single monthly bill for all services to their homes.
The Virgin founder, who owns almost 11pc of Virgin Media, said adding utilities to its current "quadplay" offering of cable television, fixed and mobile telephony and broadband internet could prove attractive to customers.
"Now we've got a billing system for all that, it might make sense for Virgin Media to finish off and sort out gas, electricity and water as well. But I haven't spoken to anyone about it," he said.
Virgin once previously licensed its brand to an electricity utility, France's EDF,
but Sir Richard said: "We regretted it and took it back."
A more pressing issue for the rebranded Virgin Media, formerly NTL-Telewest, is to renegotiate a new contract with rival BSkyB to show the Sky One channel on its cable network.
Talks over the contract descended into a fractious row yesterday after BSkyB took out advertisements warning Virgin Media's cable viewers that some Sky channels could "disappear" unless negotiations could be concluded.
News from Daily Telegraph.
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