Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) is to cut about 2,200 jobs in the UK by 2012 - that’s 15 percent of its workforce - in a drive to save £120 million. In a statement, the company said most of the jobs will go between Q409 and the end of 2010. Virgin said it’s just the latest part of a restructuring plan started earlier this year - previous reports had put the number at 1,000 (a figure the company would not confirm) but the reality of it is clearly much worse.

CEO Neil Berkett, speaking at Virgin’s investor meeting in New York, said the cuts are not about the worsening economy and falling consumer spending but about “getting rid of the inefficiencies of what was once 24 cable franchises in the UK”. That may be a euphemism for “debt”, of which Virgin has £6.2 billion. And surely the downturn is eating into profits somehow? “To date, I don’t think we are seeing a massively negative impact on the financial position. We’re not seeing anything…beyond seasonal shifts.” Makes one wonder why the cuts are coming…

Berkett: “These changes are critical to ensuring Virgin Media is positioned to compete effectively and deliver on our customers’ changing expectations.” According to the slides accompanying the meeting, “high volume, low complexity” support calls could be off-shored and call staff could be multi-skilled. Same for tech staff: VMED is considering “transformational outsourcing” of its tech services and will look for duplication of activities. On the marketing side, there will be rationalisation of budgets across the media and mobile divisions.

Where is Virgin Media going? Appointed in March, Berkett has pretty much sidelined the “quad-play” strategy for which the company was formed, concentrating instead on building fast broadband infrastructure. So what happens after its market-beating 50Mbps offering is rolled out nationwide next year? “Triple play will fall back to being the core proposition,” Berkett said, with mobile likely making up the fourth plank. More details of Virgin’s 2009 strategy after the jump...

—The “third screen”: VMED is investing more and more in mobile. Plans are already in place for mobile/TV collaborations on shows like Most Haunted and the Sarah Connor Chronicles. That’s not all: there will be mobile/VOD collaborations such as a music campaign featuring singer Jack Johnson and cross-platform sponsorship programmes including one for Virgin’s own V Festival next summer.

—VOD improvements: a key plank of VMED’s strategy is it’s VOD offering, which got 45 million average monthly views in Q308, boosted in no small part by the addition of the BBC iPlayer. But to reach a target of 100 million monthly views by Q412, Virgin is adding on-demand HD content and more specific HD channels, a DVD-style navigation interface and a more sophisticated search tool.

—No Phorm?: Virgin has identified behavioural ad targeting as a growth strategy. Though Phorm has long claimed Virgin and Carphone Warehouse are due to join BT (NYSE: BT) in trialling the controversial behavioural targeter, Berkett said: “Our next initiative probably won’t be with the Phorms of the world.”

• Updated: Virgin Media Asks To Defer Debt Payments To 2012