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Its number of viewers was "roughly flat" during April and May, it said, thanks largely to promotion campaigns.

The company had earlier said it lost 46,900 customers in the three months to the end of March.

This was prompted after Sky basic channels were withdrawn following a contract row with BSkyB.

The channels, including Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News, were withdrawn at the end of February.

Ongoing spat

"Wide-ranging mitigating actions", including heavy marketing of its video-on-demand programming, were helping it contain the losses, Virgin Media said.

It added that it expected overall net customers - the difference between those gained and those lost - to fall between April and June.

However, it hoped to return to growth in the second in the second half of the year, it added.

The company was formed earlier this year by the merger of NTL, Telewest and Virgin's mobile phone operations.

Since the merger, Virgin has become embroiled in a spat with Sky over pricing and has seen its rival withdraw channels featuring popular TV programmes, such as US desert island drama Lost.

Last month, Sky said that Virgin had rejected its latest attempt to find a solution to the long-running spat.