Virgin Media claims to have desinged a new 'smart' system that adapts to network conditions, reports ISPreview. The smart system would ensure that during heavy periods of peak demand on the network "normal" traffic, including video streams from YouTube and BBC iPlayer, aren’t inconvenienced by certain P2P traffic, such as Limewire, Gnutella, BitTorrent, and newsgroups like Usenet. 

The system reserves at least 75% of it’s available bandwidth for "time sensitive" traffic, adapting to the overall network utilization in order to ensure equal benefits to all customers, follows from Virgin Media's Traffic Management Policy. 

Most of the major British ISPs reduce P2P traffic during peak hours. While doing so, they should be careful and make exceptions for applications that incorporate P2P as an integral part of their critical service. For example, many online games such as Xbox Live, Steam, World of Warcraft use P2P. A general limitation on P2P services and platforms, could disable their operability. Most Biritish ISPs that restrict P2P traffic take this into account and build safeguards into their filters. 

Source: ISPreview, Virgin Media UK