Virgin Media Sponsors Yamaha Bike Team

Virgin Media has been announced as the title sponsor of the Yamaha British Superbike team for 2007 in a six-figure deal.

This continues a seven year relationship with Virgin Mobile and Yamaha, with the sponsorship now coming under the wing of the new entertainment and communications company.

The Virgin Mobile Cup will also get a makeover – relaunching as the Virgin Media Cup.

James Kydd, managing director of marketing at Virgin Media, said: “The sponsorship gives us the opportunity to reach a very large and passionate audience. For us the fans and not the size of our logos are the important thing and we will build our activity around them, starting by offering unique, specialist superbike content on our portal.

“We’re also continuing to support the sport at a grass roots level through the Virgin Media Cup and our own team line up illustrates the success of the championship with three out of four having previously won the title.”

Team boss Rob McElnea, added: “This continues to be a very positive association for us. We have an exciting line-up this season with many of the riders superstars in the making, and they also have the potential to emulate Tommy Hill’s achievements to date. This is the eighth year working with Virgin and another great opportunity to grow with them.”

Virgin will also continue to produce the ad funded TV show, Natural Born Racers, due to air on Five towards the end of the year. The show follows the ups and downs of the riders in the Virgin Media cup.

On Friday, NewsLine reported that Virgin Media is rumoured to be in secret talks with Channel 4 to sponsor Big Brother.

According to reports, if the two companies were to reach a deal, Virgin Media could gain exclusive access to video-on-demand content, giving it an advantage in its battle with BSkyB for subscribers (see Virgin Media Could Sign Big Brother Deal).

Virgin Media: www.virginmedia.com