No, you can't save me £20 per month

I have a Virgin Mobile pay-as-I-go mobile, and Virgin supply my internet access. I'm reasonably happy with both, although the mobile suffers from very high call charges and very spotty coverage (I don't really care about these because I almost never use my phone, so it's not worth the hassle of switching away). I get my landline supplied by BT, and have Sky TV.

So today Virgin Media phoned me and asked if I would be interested in switching my phone and TV to their service. When I said I wasn't interested, the agent was surprised. "Even though we could save you £20 a month?" he asked, to which I said yes.

Now, the telephone savings would be negligible - I would still have to pay BT line rental, and that counts for about 90% of my spending there, since I never use my phone.

No, the issue is really Sky. And, to be fair, I do spend quite a bit every month on that, what with the movie and sports packages. So, perhaps the Virgin offering really would be cheaper.

But it's not a fair comparison, because in fact Virgin can't offer the comparable product. Virgin customers don't get Sky 1, so that would mean no "24", no "Lost", no "Battlestar Galactica".

So, um, no thanks. I'll continue to spend the money, and get the product I actually want.

Now Virgin could make this a tough decision. See, they own the Bravo channel, which shows "Blade", "The Unit" and "Daybreak". So, if they pulled their channels from the Sky offering, then things become interesting. Frankly, though, I'd rather they didn't. Instead, they need to get the Sky channels back, or else they're always going to lose.

In fact, Virgin are making a mistake by putting the notion of switching in mind. See, Sky also offer an integrated package, which would save me the money I spend on Virgin's internet service each month. So, I could keep the products I like, and save quite a lot of money each month by switching... but not to them.

That, of course, raises the question: why haven't I switched? Well, the answer is quite simple. Virgin have provided me with flawless internet service for the last ten months (or however long it's been), where the Sky offering is untested. So, given the choice, I'll give them a chance to screw things up before I move away. Though perstering me to take more of their services would be a good way to start.