Sky must offer sports channels to BT

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB must offer its Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels to rival telecommunications platform BT, according to the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal.

In an interim ruling following four years of legal wrangling, the tribunal said that the channels should be available to customers of BT’s YouView packages.

Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator, first tried to force Sky to offer the channels at a 23-per-cent discount to rivals in 2010.

“BT has always maintained that Ofcom was correct to impose the ‘wholesale must offer’ on Sky and this remedy remains essential to address the significant competition concerns with Sky’s supply of its channels,” a BT spokesperson told the Guardian newspaper. “We look forward to being able to offer these channels to our YouView customers very shortly.”

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards added: “After more than four years of litigation and legal challenges, Ofcom’s 2010 pay-television decision continues to serve the interests of UK consumers and this ruling is consistent with our original decision. Today’s ruling paves the way for more top sports to be available on another TV service and supports competition and innovation in the communications sector as we originally intended.”

Sky said that the ruling was “purely interim” and added: “Today’s judgment [has] no impact on the ongoing legal process or the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s previous dismissal of Ofcom’s core argument in favour of wholesale must offer. Ofcom itself is reviewing wholesale must offer in light of market developments and we continue to believe that this unwarranted obligation should be removed entirely.”

In ruling on the matter, Mr Justice Roth said: “I do not think it is any answer to say that BT could obtain Sky Sports 1 and 2 if only it were prepared to offer reciprocal supply to Sky of BT Sport channels. BT has spent some £1.5bn acquiring football broadcasting rights in order to improve its position on the market and I do not see that BT should be required, in effect, to deprove itself of the competitive gain from that investment in order to achieve the benefit of the wholesale must offer remedy ordered by Ofcom.”

Roth said he did not want to “prejudge” Ofcom’s review of its proposed ‘wholesale-must-offer’ remedy in light of the growth of BT’s pay-television service.