Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr K
The World Cup next year might be ITVs trump card...
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The World Cup Finals are a protected sporting event which has to be made available free to air by ITV to at least 95% of UK households under the Digital Economy Bill. Virgin Media's 3.8 million TV customers account for nearly 15% of total UK households. Virgin could argue a blackout of ITV on their platform could result in ITV not maintaining their obligation to reach 95% of UK households. Virgin could also argue if ITV start charging a rebroadcast fee, which Virgin have to pass onto their customers, then ITV are not technically delivering the World Cup on a free to air basis on the Virgin Media platform.
I'm sure I'm just looking at this at a very basic level however the Digital Economy Bill was brought in to safe guard key cultural sporting from disappearing behind a paywall and making sure the events are made available easily to the widest possible audience.