BT blasts Sky’s pay TV position

UK telecoms giant BT has attacked the dominance of European satcaster Sky in the country’s pay TV market and called on regulators to “level the playing field.”

Gavin Patterson

BT, which is facing calls for its broadband infrastructure business to be broken up, said that UK media regulator Ofcom should use its review of the telecoms sector to explore Sky’s pay TV activities.

Gavin Patterson, BT’s CEO, said: “Ofcom has the opportunity to level the playing field by tackling Sky’s dominance of pay TV. That dominance has led to poor outcomes for UK consumers.”

The telecoms giant is attempting to challenge Sky’s position in the UK market and recently committed £960m (US$1.5m) to English Premier League football rights.

It has also agreed a deal with HBO Home Entertainment to make shows such as Game of Thrones available to its customers and formed a partnership with UK multichannel operator UKTV to make all its channels available to subscribers of BT TV.

Sky hit back arguing that the attack, which follows similar recent comments by BT, was “desperate stuff” and an attempt to shift attention away from calls to break up the firm’s broadband network.

Andrew Griffith, Sky’s chief financial officer, said: “BT mustn’t get away with trying to deflect attention away from the essential debate around the future of broadband.

“It is desperate stuff to draw a comparison between [BT division] Openreach – a national, un-replicable, infrastructure asset – and pay TV content.”

Meanwhile, Ofcom has confirmed plans to review the UK’s TV production sector, with areas of consideration including the effectiveness of current regulations, the impact of foreign ownership, market consolidation and future market developments.