Mockridge says Virgin Media’s priority is broadband not TV

Virgin Media’s CEO Tom Mockridge said yesterday that the cable company’s emphasis is on providing a market leading broadband service over and above a selection of exclusive TV channels.

Defending Virgin’s decision to not invest in its own content channels or original content, he said: “We carry a wider selection of channels than anyone else in the market because we are the middle guy.”

Speaking at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch, the Virgin Media boss added: “We would rather have a comprehensive offer and we don’t see the differentiation in the programming as being critical to our future. We see our differentiation as being in the quality and depth of broadband.”

Discussing other aspects of Virgin’s TV business, Mockridge said that Virgin was “certainly open” to more web-powered app deals, after integrating Netflix into TiVo boxes at the end of last year – and admitted it had already held talks with Amazon about bringing Prime Video, recently rebranded from Lovefilm, to the service.