Sky may be forced to sell on football and movies at reduced prices

[Media Boy]

Originally Posted by Grauniad

Ofcom has said that BSkyB has "market power" over live Premier League football and Hollywood films and has launched a consultation that could force it to make the content available to all other pay TV operators at more competitive prices.

Ofcom, publishing the long-awaited findings of its review of the UK pay-TV market, said that BSkyB's dominant position in the market means it has "an incentive to limit the distribution of this content to competitors, in a manner that favours its own satellite platform".

However Ofcom, which launched the investigation after a joint complaint from BT, Setanta, Top Up TV and Virgin Media, rejected calls by BSkyB's rivals that the issue should be referred to the competition commission.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/30/ofcom.bskyb

Info from Guardian Media.

Admin edit (Chris): Please do not copy and paste vast chunks of other people's copyrighted works. When drawing attention to a news story on another website, 2 or 3 paragraphs AT MOST, plus a link, is all that is required.

[Chris]

I have split this post into its own thread as it is a separate topic from Sky's shareholding in ITV.

[pedg]

The bit I find interesting is in the full PDF

We would expect the offer to include high definition (‘HD’) versions of channels
as well as interactive (‘red-button’) services where this is the means by which
viewers can gain access to primary content.

So finally ofcom might force SKY to make both the HD channels and the streams they hide behind the red button available to others. About blinkin time too in my book.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by pedg

The bit I find interesting is in the full PDF



So finally ofcom might force SKY to make both the HD channels and the streams they hide behind the red button available to others. About blinkin time too in my book.

It does seem as if Sky has been using Interactive as a fig-leaf to hide away things it really ought to have been selling on in the first place.

I can't say I'm surprised at the state the pay-TV industry has got into; this is what happens when someone controls both the content and the primary means of delivering it.

I had to laugh when I heard Sky claiming Setanta's ownership of two of the football rights packages is proof that competition is alive and well - it was a Regulatory decision that competition had failed that forced the rights to be chopped up in a way that guaranteed Sky could no longer win all of them.

[m419]

I have responded to the Ofcom consultation.If you would like to respond, just follow the instructions below It closes in Early December just go to

www.ofcom.org.uk

Then click on consultations on the left hand side of the homepage
Then click on 'Find and respond to an open consultation'
Then click on 'Broadcasting'

And there you will find the consultation for Pay TV.

this is good news for all non sky users

[Chrysalis]

result of this will likely be reduced offer for next tv contracts. Probably not a bad thing actually.

Question is why arent setanta also been forced to do the same thing as they also hold exclusive rights.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

result of this will likely be reduced offer for next tv contracts. Probably not a bad thing actually.

Question is why arent setanta also been forced to do the same thing as they also hold exclusive rights.

Maybe because Setanta don't own a distribution platform, so are not offering terms that advantage one platform over another?

[PeteTheMusicGuy]

yes, I also think that as it's on both VM, SKY and other platforms eg BT Vision that helps too