Short answers, pulled from the story.
NTL and Telewest merged in March 2006 to create the combined entity initially named NTL Incorporated. This merger secured over 90% of the UK cable provider market share and restructured the board of directors to reflect the power dynamic between the two companies.
The company officially renamed itself Virgin Media Inc on the 8th of November 2006 following a deal signed with Sir Richard Branson to license the Virgin brand. This rebranding included a 30-year exclusive agreement and transformed the corporate identity from NTL and Telewest to a consumer-focused brand.
The conflict between Virgin Media and Sky ended on the 4th of November 2008 when an agreement was struck for Sky's Basic channels to return to Virgin Media from the 13th of November 2008 until the 12th of June 2011. This resolution included fixed annual carriage fees of £30m for the channels.
On the 30th of September 2019, Virgin Media announced their new Gig1 rollout providing download speeds up to 1,140 Mbit/s and upload speeds up to 52 Mbit/s. This service started in Southampton and subsequently rolled out to selected major cities including Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The merger between Liberty Global and Telefónica to combine Virgin Media and O2 was completed on the 1st of June 2021 after receiving approval from the Competition and Markets Authority on the 19th of May 2021. The resulting company operates as Virgin Media O2 and serves approximately 5.8 million customers as of year end 2024.
Virgin Mobile ceased operations on the 31st of August 2023 with all customers moved to the O2 network. This closure followed the 2021 merger that created Virgin Media O2 and aligned the mobile services with the broader telecommunications infrastructure.