Virgin Media turns Manchester town hall red for derby

Last night, the final whistle was blown on Virgin Media's thrilling ten-day virtual pre-match contest between Manchester United and Manchester City supporters, when the landmark town hall was lit up 84% red and 16% blue, to reflect the number of Tweets sent by fans of each team.

The No Likey, No Lighty' off-pitch game, organised by Virgin Media, took place through social media site, Twitter, and saw more than 20,000 messages of support sent for the two teams. Virgin Media, who will be showing the match live on Sky Sports 1 tonight, encouraged fans to tackle the question of who would triumph in the Manchester derby by Tweeting special hashtags for their favourite team, and it was United fans who triumphed by sending more than 17,500 Tweets during the campaign.

The contest even attracted the attention of Manchester born Melanie Sykes and former United goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel who were gunning for United and former City legend, Franny Lee and Daybreak TV presenter John Stapleton who were backing City. As well as attracting celebrities, No Likey, No Lighty' also went global drawing in United and City fans from across the world including supporters in South Africa, India, USA, Australia, Venezuela and New Zealand.

The final whistle was blown on the contest at 12pm yesterday, Sunday 7th April, with the result unveiled at 7:30pm when the town hall was lit up in 84% red lights and just 16% blue lights, in proportion to how many Tweets each team received.

Ryan Adolpho, Virgin Media's Manchester, Arndale, store manager, said, It looks like United fans have scored the first goal by winning our competition but City still have plenty of time to bag the bragging rights in the real match tonight. We wish both teams the best of luck and will be glued to the game on Sky Sports 1 on Virgin TV to find out who will take the three points.

Virgin Media offers a selection of different home entertainment packages including a Sky Sports Collection which includes Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports 4, Sky Sports News and Sky Sports F1. For more information visit www.virginmedia.com/manchester.

For journalist enquiries contact

Press Office

t: 0207 909 2225

e: pressoffice@virginmedia.co.uk

About Virgin Media

Virgin Media is the first provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone and home phone services in the UK.

The company delivers ultrafast broadband connections to over half of all UK homes, with speeds of up to 120Mb, and is expanding this cable network the result of a multi-billion pound investment to reach thousands more people across the country.

Virgin Media has developed the most advanced interactive television service, bringing together broadcast TV, thousands of hours of on demand programming and the best of the web in a single set-top box powered by TiVo. The company was the first to offer HD TV and 3D on demand to millions of UK households.

Virgin Media also operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world's first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.

Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange (VMED).

For more information, go to www.virginmedia.com

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