Virgin to charge £85 a month for home media package

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The newly formed cable company Virgin Media is to launch a top end home media package aimed at households prepared to spend over £1,000 a year on the right combination of products.
Tomorrow morning Richard Branson will finally reveal the home media package he hopes will grab consumers away from the clutches of Sky.

For a whopping £85 a month consumers will get a state of the art digital TV service, home phone, and super-fast broadband connection.

Virgin Media is the newly formed company that came out of the merger of cable TV companies NTL and Telewest, and Virgin's own mobile phone division.

According to early pricing structure seen by Guardian Money, most of the "bundled packages" that combine a home phone, broadband and digital TV look remarkably similar to the old NTL offering.

However, the new company has come up with what it has called its Very Impressive Pack aimed at the highest spending households.

Consumers will get its new Vplus digital TV, offering 129 channels, a personal video recorder and high definition signal - including the popular Sky Sports and movie packages.

Users also get a second set-top box for another room, and a new video on demand service. On top, those signing up also get a 10Mb, unlimited broadband connection, plus a home landline with unlimited calls to other homes.

Virgin says the deal represents a saving of about £37 a month against buying each component separately.

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