Virgin Media goes shopping as rivalry with Sky mounts

The link-up offers Virgin Media users the chance to shop at Tesco,
Sainsbury's, Asda and Ocado, as well as comparing prices of goods from
each store. Mysupermarket's tools enable users to fill a trolley, and
compare the prices of the goods, before directing them to the
supermarket where they will get the best deal.

Virgin Media has also added a Christmas Shop feature on its portal after
partnering with gift and gadget site Prezzybox. As well as shopping
features, the company has been investing in online content.

Virgin Media is attempting to develop its advantage over Sky in the
online stakes. It attracted 5.5 million unique users in September 2007,
compared with Sky's 4.9 million, according to research company Nielsen
Online.

Sky's drive to develop Sky.com from a corporate site into a
consumer-facing portal has been raised several notches in recent months,
however. The site now has 12 channels of content - largely through
third-party deals.

Last month, Sky launched a motoring website through a partnership with
car websites, including Auto Trader, which signed up to provide used-car
listings to the site.

Sky's aim is to create a series of websites around Sky.com to run
advertising and offer its customers a range of content. This summer saw
the broadcaster create a dating site through a partnership with Dating
Direct and a property site with Propertyfinder.com.

Mysupermarket's deal with Virgin Media is the second high-profile deal
the site has signed recently after launching on The Sun's website last
month. The comparison site is seeking to strike deals with more national
newspapers, as well as a range of portals.