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UK battle over pay-TV soccer
Chris Forrester
British Telecom (BT) has cheekily undercut BSkyB’s prices for its supply of Sky’s premium sports channels, in particular those featuring Premiership soccer. Sky, just as artfully, has responded by increasing its own prices to individual subscribers, thereby raising its wholesale prices and thus ensuring that BT loses money on each channel sold. But quite how this price rise is going to go down with Sky’s own subscribers has yet to be seen.
BT’s prices for Sky channels,says BT, are now significantly cheaper than Sky. BT subscribers could “save” £205 a year when measured against the same bundle of channels from Sky, and £281 cheaper than the same bundle if bought from Virgin Media.
Sky’s wholesale prices are closely regulated by Ofcom, and are set as a strict percentage of Sky’s retail price. Those retail prices are expected to rise by £3 a month effective September 1. This means that the new wholesale price rises to £19.07 for Sky Sports 1 and 2. BT has published its retail prices as being £16.99 a month for the two channels. Hence an instant loss for BT.
But, there could be a sting in the tale, at least from regulator Ofcom. BT and Sky’s other rivals have appeals running against the formula set down by Ofcom, arguing that the wholesale price is too high and that the formula is wrong.
Chris Forrester
British Telecom (BT) has cheekily undercut BSkyB’s prices for its supply of Sky’s premium sports channels, in particular those featuring Premiership soccer. Sky, just as artfully, has responded by increasing its own prices to individual subscribers, thereby raising its wholesale prices and thus ensuring that BT loses money on each channel sold. But quite how this price rise is going to go down with Sky’s own subscribers has yet to be seen.
BT’s prices for Sky channels,says BT, are now significantly cheaper than Sky. BT subscribers could “save” £205 a year when measured against the same bundle of channels from Sky, and £281 cheaper than the same bundle if bought from Virgin Media.
Sky’s wholesale prices are closely regulated by Ofcom, and are set as a strict percentage of Sky’s retail price. Those retail prices are expected to rise by £3 a month effective September 1. This means that the new wholesale price rises to £19.07 for Sky Sports 1 and 2. BT has published its retail prices as being £16.99 a month for the two channels. Hence an instant loss for BT.
But, there could be a sting in the tale, at least from regulator Ofcom. BT and Sky’s other rivals have appeals running against the formula set down by Ofcom, arguing that the wholesale price is too high and that the formula is wrong.