NTL's tie-up with Virgin Mobile was accompanied with the kind of hype you expect when Sir Richard Branson is involved. We were invited to believe that the cable giant was on the threshold of a brave new world and would "shake up" the media industry. Time will tell if the deal translates into a commercial success that really will make Sky and BT worried.
There are two main motivations behind the transaction: Virgin's brand power and the creation of "quad-play", which is a clunky piece of jargon - Branson prefers the term "four-play" - to describe the provision of TV, broadband, fixed line telephony and mobile phone services by the same operator.
Critics of the deal aren't sure that consumers really want to buy all these four services from a "one-stop shop" and worry that many Virgin Mobile customers aren't the kind of people who make bill decisions about other media. Nevertheless, quad-play is for now a unique proposition and NTL is confident it will help to drive down "churn" - the number of people who give up on its services.
When it comes to branding, NTL is hoping a bit of Virgin magic will rescue its reputation for bad customer service. The company is going to re-name itself at some point, and although nothing official has been unveiled, the V-word is already firmly in executives' minds. Branson talked about "Virgin Television", while NTL chairman Jim Mooney mused about "the concept of Virgin Sports".
NTL bosses provided journalists with a pyramid chart showing the relative appeal of brands among consumers, with the Virgin name at the apex. They clearly believe a name change can have a transformative effect and are paying the equivalent of £9m a year in licensing to use the brand.
So will the Branson touch be enough to sort out NTL and give it a new reputation for efficiency and customer focus? And will customers be more excited by a company just because it has the word Virgin in its name?
