Profile: Malcolm Wall - Virgin Media's prizefighter

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Profile of Malcolm Wall, Virgin Media's chief executive of its content division

Had NTL's bid for ITV succeeded there was a good chance that Malcolm Wall would have been installed as the battling broadcaster's chief executive.

A former high flyer at Southern TV, Anglia and chief operating officer at United Business Media, the 50-year-old veteran's career looks custom-made for running the network he knows so well; it is believed that Wall was the author of NTL's bid document for ITV.

The marriage between these unlikeliest of bedfellows was not to be. As things turned out, Wall, chief executive of what since 8 February is called Virgin Media's content division, has, arguably, an even bigger challenge before him than re-invigorating ITV.

Transforming Britain's biggest commercial terrestrial broadcaster for the digital age is a tough call. But so is being a key player in Richard Branson's attempts to undermine Sky - and to prove, against the lessons of the past two decades, that cable can be a success story in the UK.

So is Wall, who joined what was then NTL a year ago, intimidated by the task ahead, not only of competing head-on with Europe's most successful pay-TV operator but against other, less experienced rivals such as BT?

'There are not many things that intimidate me,' growls Wall, a well-built former boxer who favours sharp suits. His military bearing was almost certainly inherited from his father, a general in the Royal Marines. He adds: 'Whether you are in the boxing arena or the TV business the trick is always to respect your opponent but also to know where to find his soft underbelly.'

In Wall's case the pugilistic metaphor is deeply relevant. His career as an amateur boxer, which began as an undergraduate at the University of Kent, lasted until a few months ago when he stepped into the ring for one last bout at Bethnal Green's York Hall in the East End.

'Boxing sharpens the mind,' Wall insists, 'but after my last fight I decided that if I took any more blows it might end up having the opposite effect.'

As it is, Wall, who began his media career at Southern Television's airtime sales department almost 30 years ago, is a formidable executive in more ways than one. 'Malcolm is a very ambitious and determined man capable of inspiring great loyalty from his friends and colleagues,' says Roger Laughton, Wall's boss at United Broadcasting for much of the 1990s.

Adds Laughton, who poached Wall from Granada: 'As a keen sportsman Malcolm will enjoy the game as well as hoping to get the right outcome.'

Wall's background in advertising sales, rather than programme-making, is probably a big advantage for the job at hand. If James Murdoch - or his successor at BSkyB - is to sustain a bloody nose in the heavyweight bout with Virgin Media, Wall's management skills - particularly his talent for deal-making and negotiation - will need to land some significant content deals.

His first test under the Virgin Media banner may well be successfully negotiating a new deal to carry Sky's basic channels such as Sky One.

NTL's bid for exclusive Premier League soccer rights failed last year, defeated by Sky and Setanta. But the betting must be that under Wall's leadership Virgin will sooner or later land a big sports contract, provided Murdoch doesn't get too chummy with ITV. Not only is he a sport nut (Wall has played rugby to professional standard), it is a little known fact that a decade ago Wall prepared an ambitious Premier League bid on behalf of United.

Sky, of course, emerged triumphant, but the experience will stand Wall in good stead in his role at Virgin. 'It was a terrific bid,' Laughton recalls. 'I remember the board giving Malcolm a round of applause when he presented it. He is no stranger to taking on Sky.'

But can he succeed where others, most spectacularly the ITV-owned On Digital, have failed? Wall identifies Virgin's VoD proposition as its USP while conceding that as far as linear channels are concerned there is not at this stage a great deal of difference between the two.

He thinks the combination of content (deals have been completed for 2,700 hours of VoD, while thousands more are in the pipeline) and Virgin's delivery mechanism will prove an irresistible proposition to subscribers. 'Sky may have more linear channels than we do,' he says. 'But we've got all the most viewed channels. Linear channels are declining. It's notable how the Sky Movies channels have declined.

'With our good navigational tools and Virgin Central (the on-demand channel is hyped by the company as 'revolutionary'), we're offering subscribers something unique. We believe there is a strong appetite for a library-based service.'

'Malcolm has a good nose for content because he's been in content businesses before,' opines John Willis, who worked alongside Wall at United as chief executive of the company's production arm. 'Content is not what Malcolm does but a lot of what Virgin Media will be about is marketing and organisation, rather than who writes the script, and Malcolm is good at that.'

If Wall succeeds at Virgin, he could yet find himself in contention once again for the top job at ITV. 'Malcolm's best years may well be head of him,' suggests a former colleague.