Sky may be forced to widen movie and sport access

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BSkyB has too much power in the supply of premium content and could be made to offer it on a wholesale basis to rivals, Ofcom has said.

The media regulator said in a statement today (30 September) it would launch a consultation on its view that Sky had "market power" in the wholesale supply of Premier League football and Hollywood films plus an incentive to limit the distribution to others.

To remedy this, Ofcom has proposed forcing Sky to make programming such as Premier League matches and blockbuster movies more widely available on a wholesale basis to other retailers.

"This proposal should enable consumers to access this content regardless of their choice of pay-TV platform, and provide consumers with an increased choice of service bundles," the regulator said.

The regulator also proposed allowing Sky its proposed digital-based service called Picnic, as long as it makes the premium sport and film channels contained within the service available on a wholesale basis to other retailers.

Earlier this month, Sky said it had dropped Picnic, blaming a lack of clarity from Ofcom. The original plan was to combine a mini-pay package including Sky One, Sky Sports, Sky Movies, Sky News, Disney Channel and Disney Channel with broadband and telephony services.

Ofcom's consultations will close on December 9 with the findings due to be published in the new year.