Ofcom sides with Sky in round-one of BT battle

20th Jun 2013 12:41

The UK communication regulator Ofcom has ruled in favour of British Sky Broadcasting against one of BT's complaints that the satellite broadcaster was abusing its dominant position. BT complained that Sky had blocked its attempts to advertise on the Sky Sports channels.BT said that by refusing to carry BT Sport advertising on these channels, Sky was "behaving in an unduly discriminatory manner" in breach of the advertising code, especially as Sky Sports had carried adverts from another rival ESPN sports channels before.However, Ofcom found that while could not disagree that Sky was discriminating, this was not "undue discrimination" and that Sky was not in breach of the code. Ofcom said: "our view in relation to the discrimination between Sky and BT is that Sky is pursuing a legitimate commercial interest. We also consider, given the limited extent of the effects on BT, that Sky's approach is proportionate to its aim. We therefore consider that Sky has not unduly discriminated against BT in that respect."In a related complaint, BT has protested that Sky is also unduly discriminating by only agreeing to supply BT's sports channels on its network if BT included Sky's sports channels on the BT network.BT said it believed Sky had "behaved in an unreasonable and discriminatory manner"."This is because they have refused to provide Sky Sports 1 and 2 to BT on YouView on fair terms whilst providing them to other pay-TV retailers such as TalkTalk."This other complaint has yet to be judged. Shares in BT were down 1.9% at 307.72p and BSkyB's were also down 1.95% at 778.5p at 13:40 on Thursday.OH