Under an interim CEO and having taken a kicking from BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) stemming from the loss of Sky channels, Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) appears to be stepping back from TV and its core quad-play strategy to focus primarily on its broadband strategy. Neil Berkett conceded to The Guardian: “Despite our technical advantage, we are still not really standing out from the crowd.” Virgin’s broadband subscriber growth was slower than its rival’s in Q2 (up 51,000 to 3.5 million against BSkyB’s 259,00 additions, taking it to 716,000). So, The Times says, Berkett is “backing away from competing head-on with BSkyB” and instead will push perhaps its best asset.

SEE ALSO: @ Mipcom: Virgin Media Trials HD TV Over High-Speed Broadband

Though Berkett believes broadband has been commoditised by the likes of Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali, Virgin already offers 20Mbps over cable against BSkyB’s theoretical maximum of up to 16Mbps (and up to 8Mbps is more commonplace). Its 50Mbps trial in Kent will come to market much faster than rivals’ copper-based next-generation services because BT (NYSE: BT) has not yet been compelled to unbundle its 24Mbps 21st Century Network as it was with standard exchanges—an upgrade that will be more expensive than that for Virgin, which is already planning to offer HD TV over the net.

Trying to compete in the offline multichannel TV landscape could be a costly and possibly losing battle, given dominant Freeview has no subscription fee and BSkyB commands the pay-TV market. Meanwhile, in telephony, fixed voice services have never been one of the big revenue drivers, and mobile has not really been fully integrated into the “quad-play” vision. In planning its cut-price Picnic service, BSkyB recognised the likelihood of attracting more customers by flexibly selling them just one or two services rather than forcing them to take all four. What’s more, as more services like TV and telephony are delivered over broadband, focusing on that medium could, in future, benefit all four.