Last year, Ofcom began a review to determine whether regulation remained appropriate.
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Since 2010, consumers have been able to choose from a wider range of services, enabling them to watch sports through a range of pay TV broadcasters and devices.
“Following consultation and evidence from stakeholders, Ofcom has found that Sky is now supplying sports widely on commercial terms outside of the regulation”, said Ofcom.
Ofcom says these developments, plus the arrival of BT Sport which has spent £2bn on major sports rights, means the 2010 regulation is no longer necessary.
Sky has scored a victory over BT that could give it a stronger hand in sports channel negotiations, following a decision by the media watchdog to scrap rules that force it to provide Sky Sports 1 and 2 at a controlled price. “BT’s investment in Sport has helped them stem the loss of customers to Sky Broadband/Telephony (pre BT’s investment in Sport Sky TV customers with BT broadband/telephony have always been seen as “easy-pickings” for Sky to sell triple play bundles to)”.
New providers have entered or plan to enter the TV market, such as EE and Vodafone, and companies are increasingly competing to provide pay-TV services as part of a package that includes broadband and mobile.
A separate complaint from BT made in June 2013, and now the subject of an Ofcom investigation, alleged Sky was abusing its dominant position by making wholesale supply of Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 to BT’s YouView platform conditional on BT wholesaling its BT Sport channels to Sky for retail on Sky’s satellite platform. “Should evidence emerge of practices which we consider to be prejudicial to fair and effective competition, we will quickly reassess the need for regulation”. “We will consider our legal options in light of this decision and, in the meantime, continue to offer our customers access to Sky Sports 1 and 2”.
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“The regulation applied only to a small number of TV providers, principally Liberty Global’s Virgin Media and BT, but we note that Sky has also been reselling the content to several other platforms. We therefore expect Sky to behave appropriately so that we can continue to offer our customers access”, he said.
