The Sunday Telegraph claimed that NTL is set to use the competitive edge it will gain through the addition of Virgin Mobile's services in order to outgun Sky in pay-TV.
Being the only company able to offer the quadruple-play of TV, broadband, fixed and mobile telephony will give Virgin TV marketing muscle.
The Sunday Telegraph quoted Robert Samuelson, the head of Virgin Telecoms and Media, who said: "The thing about selling four products is that you can offer one for free."
NTL's merger with Telewest and acquisition of Virgin Mobile has given it a customer base of more than 9m, of which 3.3m subscribe to pay-TV. That figure is dwarfed by Sky's 8m subscribers, but both pay-TV companies are being outpaced in customer growth by Freeview.
Sales of Freeview boxes and televisions passed the 10m mark in February, with 6.4m households now receiving the free-to-air service.
One analyst told The Sunday Telegraph: "There is a concern that while NTL and Sky bite chunks out of each other, Freeview is given a clear run to increase its impact on the digital multichannel market."
While NTL expands into mobile services, Sky is doing the same with broadband, following its £211m acquisition of Easynet in October, and observers have speculated it may offer broadband free with its TV and fixed-line phone packages.
There is also speculation that mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse will announce tomorrow that it will offer free broadband access to customers of its Talk Talk fixed-line phone service.
Meanwhile, BT has bought the rights to screen concerts by artists including Sheryl Crow and The Who on the broadband TV platform it is planning to launch in the autumn as BT Vision.
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