Charles Allen, ITV's former Chief Executive, has been appointed to Virgin Media's board as an independent non-executive director. Allen will also be joined by the former president of Bright House Networks' Florida Group, John Rigsby.

The move is being seen as a sign that Virgin Media could be gearing up for a second shot at buying ITV itself, which is known to have hit troubled times. Virgin's first attempts to buy the group failed when, at the last minute, BSkyB purchased a significant 18% stake in ITV.

Readers may recall that BSkyB's attempts to wrong foot Virgin Media were later found to be an anti-competitive by the Competition Commission (CC), which promptly ordered them to sell the stake. BSkyB are currently appealing this decision and any failure would give Virgin the green light to try again.