Virgin Media is set to launch next month with a marketing campaign reportedly costing £20m and featuring Pulp Fiction star Uma Thurman. According to The Sunday Telegraph, Virgin Media—formed from the merger of cable operators ntl and Telewest, and Virgin Mobile—will launch on St Valentine's Day, offering a new digital TV recorder and promising UK-wide coverage by the middle of 2008.

The new digital recorder is reportedly based on Telewest's TVDrive device which allows subscribers to download high-definition as well as standard-definition TV programmes, as well as pause and rewind live TV. The Sunday Telegraph said Virgin Media would counter BSkyB's charge that its cable network only reached 55% of the UK by installing its own equipment in BT's exchanges—the process known as local loop unbundling—as well as via a wholesale deal with a telecommunications operator.

In September ntl unveiled its much-heralded 'quadruple play', offering digital TV, fixed and mobile telephony plus broadband access for £40 per month. Last week BSkyB threw down the gauntlet to ntl and BT by offering a triple-play of TV, broadband and telephony for £26 a month (though BT line rental would cost an extra £11 per month).

Announcing the marketing campaign featuring Thurman, Virgin Media marketing chief James Kydd told The Independent Thurman would be "helping us launch the most exciting and the biggest Virgin-branded company in the world".

Meanwhile, the Financial Times said Chancellor Gordon Brown was being urged by Sky to resist a regulatory intervention over its 17.9% stake in ITV. Sky surprised the City, rivals and regulators alike by acquiring the stake, which scuppered ntl's hopes of merging with ITV.

Both the Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom are investigating the competition implications of the stake. Trade secretary Alistair Darling could this week announce whether Ofcom will also review the public interest issues raised by the stake.