[awibble]

the Virgin "shops" are actually known as VirginMegastores.

Virgin Megastores is a seperate company to Virgin Media.

As it happens Virgin Megastores is one of the few companies that RB actually started him self, i belive in the UK they are still 100% owned by the Virgin Gorup.

Virgin media is a seperate company, with 10% of it owned by RB (but possibale not Virgin) and they rent the name Virgin for a yearly fee.

As they are 2 seperate companies, its not as easy as you think, theres just as much chance been able to pay your bill in HMV as in VirginMegastores (although if it was to happen, they would have a little more bargining as they share the virgin name).

As it happens, Virgin Active (the fitness clubs) all appear to have Sky and Not Cable, and they have SkyNews on a lot of the day (talk about a poke in the eye for VM customers).

End of the day, All virgin companies simply rent the name from Virgin.

If you want to (and you have the money) you could start your own companie, say if your a plumber, you could stat Virgin Plumbers rent the name, but you wouldnt have to advertise VM