Ofcom Consultation Delays Sky’s Pay DTT Plans
Communications regulator Ofcom has today announced that it will conduct a public consultation on proposals from BSkyB and National Grid Wireless Ltd to replace Sky’s free channels with pay TV services on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform.
Following Sky’s announcement of intention on this in February (see New Sky Service To Lure Consumers From Free TV), Ofcom has been supplied with further detail by the two companies and now says it has sufficient information to review the proposals.
Sky is seeking to replace its three existing free-to-air channels with three pay television channels on DTT. However, Sky is not proposing to use MPEG4 compression technology at this stage, as originally stated in its previous announcement.
Ofcom is looking at a three-channel pay-DTT service from Sky using MPEG2, rather than Sky’s original plan for a four-channel service that used MPEG4 compression technology, which is incompatible with all Freeview boxes.
The applications raise a number of important issues, including a consideration of how Ofcom can best ensure fair and effective competition for the benefit of consumers.
Ofcom expects to issue a consultation document in the autumn, provided there are no further delays in the conclusion of outstanding technical and commercial issues between the applicants. Ofcom’s normal consultation period is ten weeks. This will be followed by a statement, which Ofcom hopes to publish early next year.
In the meantime, NGW is obliged to ensure that Sky’s free-to-air channels remain on the DTT platform pending the outcome of Ofcom’s review.
This timeline effectively dashes Sky’s hopes of launching the pay-TV service in time for the start of the Premiership football season – when rival broadcaster Setanta starts offering Premiership matches via DTT for £10.99 a month (see Sky’s New DTT Proposal Could Damage Freeview).
Sky’s basic channel package was removed from the Virgin Media platform earlier this year after a very public spat over cannel carriage fees (see Virgin Media And Sky: The Story So Far), whilst some of its flagship channels are to be removed from Freeview later this year.
BSkyB: 020 7705 3000 www.sky.com