Ofcom unlocks Sky Sports' pricing as BT Sport deemed a worthy competitor
UK comms watchdog Ofcom has relinquished its control of Sky’s Sports channel pricing due to the emergence of “fair and effective competition” from rival BT Sport.
Ofcom today (Thursday 19 November) announced that it will disband the “wholesale must-offer” price of Sky Sports 1 and 2 – the fee Sky was legally required to sell its channel access to UK broadcast rivals for.
The restriction, which was put in place to ensure the UK public could access Sky Sport’s packages outwith Sky’s broadcast offering to ensure competition in the UK market, has been lifted in response to BT substantially upping its game in 2015 and 2016 – especially with its £897m three-year seizure of the UK Champions League rights.
BT Sport will now have to hash out terms with Sky if it wants to secure the rights to Sky Sports 1 and 2 – which may see a leaner BT offering if it fails to acquire access to the rival network.
An Ofcom statement read: “Ofcom continues to monitor the pay TV market closely. Should evidence emerge of practices which we consider to be prejudicial to fair and effective competition, we will quickly reassess the need for regulation.
“In particular, Ofcom wants to be sure that consumers continue to have access to, and a choice of, packages and services containing Sky Sports 1 and 2.”
A Sky spokesperson said: “We are pleased that Ofcom has decided to remove the WMO condition. As the evidence demonstrates, we are, and have always been, more than happy to make our channels available on other platforms.”
BT on the otherhand was not pleased with the development, a spokesperson told The Drum: “BT is very disappointed that Ofcom has proposed the removal of the wholesale must offer obligation on Sky to provide wholesale access Sky Sports 1 and 2 on regulated terms.
“We will consider our legal options in the light of this decision and, in the meantime, continue to offer our customers access to Sky Sports 1 and 2.
“Ofcom has said it is important for Pay TV retailers to have access to key Sky content to be able to compete effectively in this market, and that they want consumers to have access to these channels. We therefore expect Sky to behave appropriately so that we can continue to offer our customers access.
“We still believe that effective remedies are essential to address the failure of competition in the Pay TV market, in which Sky has had around 75 per cent share of retail subscription revenues for more than 10 years.”