Sky Names ITV Sport Carriage Price

ITV demanded £80m a year from BSkyB for the right to distribute its ITV Sport channel on the Sky digital platform, according to BSkyB’s chief executive, Tony Ball.

Ball told a House of Commons committee yesterday that BSkyB had been close to finalising a deal to carry the ITV Sport channel weeks ago, but that ITV pulled at the last minute believing that the deal would be detrimental to ITV Digital, with the Champions League starting in February.

In a submission to the DCMS Sky said: “ITV has deliberately withheld the ITV Sport channel from satellite viewers whilst adopting a policy of blaming its lack of availability on Sky.”

The submission continues: “Sky has not and is not in a position to deny access to ITV Sport and hopes that ITV will soon make the ITV Sport channel available to digital satellite viewers.”

ITV secured carriage for its flagship and entertainment channels, ITV1 and ITV2, on the Sky digital platform last November in a deal thought to have cost ITV £13m (see £13m Price Tag Put On ITV’s Sky Carriage). The long awaited agreement brought ITV1 and ITV2 to Sky’s 5.5 million digital subscribers and saw ITV2 benefit from a 150% increase in distribution.

BSkyB: 020 7705 3000 www.sky.com ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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