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Reporting the figure, The Mail on Sunday claims 40,000 of the subscribers made the decision because they were no longer able to get some Sky channels on Virgin's cable TV service. The remainder were fixed-line phone customers.

BSkyB pulled its Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News channels from Virgin at the beginning of March after the two failed to agree a new carriage deal. The loss of Sky One denied Virgin customers of hit shows such as 'Battlestar Galactica', 'Lost' and '24'.

Virgin said, in its last quarterly results, that it had 3.39m TV subscribers but expected to lose some because of the loss of the Sky channels. It has filed a High Court case against Sky for abuse of market dominance.

Virgin is currently up for sale with an £11bn price tag. Initial offers for the company are due in this week, amid fears that the onset of more onerous terms for corporate debt could deter would-be buyers.

US media giant Liberty Media's board is meeting this week to decide whether to make a bid, while private equity firms Providence and KKR are also interested in competing with early suitor Carlyle.

Another private equity firm, TPG, has pulled out over concerns about Virgin's business model, while Blackstone is believed to be unsure.