Virgin Media have announced a launch date for their new flagship channel - October 1st.

Virgin 1, intended as a premium quality rival to Sky One as part of the cable company's ongoing battle with the satellite giant, will be launching on all platforms - including Freeview. Virgin have signed up a lot of new content for the channel, including the Terminator-inspired series The Sarah Connor Chronicles, various series of Star Trek, and several other new US imports.

On Freeview, Virgin 1 is expected to replace Virgin's existing entertainment channel, FTN, on channel 20. It's unknown whether the channel will run through the day or just the evening, as the FTN slot is currently only available from 6pm - but as it timeshares with UK Brightideas, another Virgin owned channel, it's possible that both will be replaced. Both FTN and the UKTV channels were originally owned by Telewest, who merged with NTL before rebranding as Virgin Media.