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ITV calls in Ofcom over Sky charges

Just found this:

http://www.dtg.org.uk/

ITV calls in Ofcom over Sky chargesGo backITV calls in Ofcom over Sky charges
Ofcom has been called in after the breakdown in long-running negotiations
between ITV and BSkyB over the encryption contract for ITV1 and ITV2. In
November, ITV agreed a two-month extension to its encryption and
regionalised electronic programme guide (EPG) contract which was due to
expire that month.

ITV is demanding a big cut in its £17m per-annum contract to encrypt ITV1
and ITV2. ITV3 has been broadcast 'in the clear' as an unencrypted channel
since launching on November 1, an option ITV could pursue for ITV1 and
ITV2, though that will require the approval of movie and sports rights
holders.

The Guardian said the intervention was Ofcom's first involving BSkyB. It
quoted an ITV spokesman saying: "In ITV's view, BSkyB's proposed charge for
this service - which would ensure that the right regional variants of ITV1
were available at button 103 of BSkyB's programme guide - are unfair,
unreasonable and unduly discriminatory, and therefore in breach of BSkyB's
obligations under EU and UK law."

A Sky spokesman told the Financial Times: "We look forward to demonstrating
to Ofcom that the charges we propose for ITV are consistent with our
regulatory obligations."

Meanwhile, BSkyB is about to attempt to win Freeview viewers to its pay-TV
platform by airing a two-hour special episode of cult drama 24 on its Sky
Travel channel. Sky Travel is part of the Freeview line-up, whereas Sky One
- 24's normal home - is only available in Sky and cable subscription
packages. 24 will air on Sky Travel and Sky One on January 30, and after
that only on Sky One.

Sky CFO to join EMI
Former BSkyB chief financial officer Martin Stewart is joining music
publisher EMI as its CFO, and will step up to joint chief executive next
year.

--
Dave F

Dave Fawthrop wrote:
Just found this:

http://www.dtg.org.uk/

There's this as well:

http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/sto...384835,00.html

ITV complains to regulators over Sky access deal

Chris Tryhorn, City correspondent
Thursday January 6, 2005

ITV has made a formal complaint to regulators about charges BSkyB wants
to impose for ensuring that satellite viewers receive the correct
regional version of the channel.

ITV has alleged in a statement to Ofcom that Sky's proposed charges are
"unfair, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory and therefore in breach
of BSkyB's obligations under EU and UK law".

The complaint comes after the two broadcasters failed to reach agreement
over ITV's new contract with Sky Digital, which was supposed to have
been renewed in November.

A two month stay of execution was granted but talks have reached an
impasse and ITV has decided it has no option but to have BSkyB
investigated.

ITV wants at least £13m slashed off its annual £17m a year bill for
Sky's services to encrypt and regionalise its channel. Under any new
contract, ITV is unlikely to pay its current rate, and the two sides
have stalled on negotiations.

ITV has to decide whether to follow the BBC and broadcast "in the
clear", abandoning Sky's encryption services that stop viewers outside
the UK picking up ITV channels.

It launched ITV3 without encryption in November, and is considering
whether to adopt the same approach for all its channels.

At the moment ITV pays for a range of services with Sky, which include
providing the right regional version of ITV1 in its slot at 103 on the
electronic programme guide, and guaranteeing that only satellite viewers
with decryption cards can watch it.

Encryption is an important issue for rights holders such as sports
bodies and Hollywood studios, which do not want their properties being
shown in "overspill" countries such as Ireland and France.

ITV believes it is entitled to a deal at least as low as the £4m a year
reportedly paid by the BBC under a contract signed in 2003.

It is citing an Ofcom rule that "comparable broadcasters purchasing
comparable services at broadly similar times should pay comparable
prices".

Before the BBC negotiated its contract with Sky, its then director
general Greg Dyke had threatened to quit Sky's satellite services
altogether.

Although the BBC did in the end go "in the clear", it signed up to a new
package of services to ensure the right regional editions of BBC1 and
BBC2 appeared in the 101 and 102 slots.

ITV now wants its flagship channel ITV1 to get a similar deal and hopes
to persuade Sky to come back to the negotiating table or get Ofcom to
rule in its favour.

The regulator has four months from today to rule on the complaint,
though it is likely that an agreement will be struck sooner.

A Sky spokesman defended the company's charges: "Sky provides
conditional access and EPG services on fair, reasonable and
non-discriminatory terms and has done so since the launch of the digital
satellite platform in 1998.

"We look forward to demonstrating to Ofcom that the charges we proposed
for ITV1 are consistent with our regulatory obligations."

ITV confirmed that it had submitted a formal complaint to Ofcom.

"In ITV's view, BSkyB's proposed charge for this service - which would
ensure that the right regional variants of ITV1 were available at button
103 of BSkyB's programme guide - are unfair, unreasonable and unduly
discriminatory and therefore in breach of BSkyB's obligations under EU
and UK law," a spokesman for the company said.

ITV also complained to watchdogs about Sky's charges for "conditional
access", or encryption, after it negotiated its last contract in
November 2001. The regulator at that time, Oftel, later rejected the
complaint.

--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

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"Dave Fawthrop" wrote in message
...
Just found this:

http://www.dtg.org.uk/

ITV calls in Ofcom over Sky chargesGo backITV calls in Ofcom over Sky
charges
Ofcom has been called in after the breakdown in long-running negotiations
between ITV and BSkyB over the encryption contract for ITV1 and ITV2. In
November, ITV agreed a two-month extension to its encryption and
regionalised electronic programme guide (EPG) contract which was due to
expire that month.

ITV is demanding a big cut in its £17m per-annum contract to encrypt ITV1
and ITV2. ITV3 has been broadcast 'in the clear' as an unencrypted channel
since launching on November 1, an option ITV could pursue for ITV1 and
ITV2, though that will require the approval of movie and sports rights
holders.

The Guardian said the intervention was Ofcom's first involving BSkyB. It
quoted an ITV spokesman saying: "In ITV's view, BSkyB's proposed charge
for
this service - which would ensure that the right regional variants of ITV1
were available at button 103 of BSkyB's programme guide - are unfair,
unreasonable and unduly discriminatory, and therefore in breach of BSkyB's
obligations under EU and UK law."

A Sky spokesman told the Financial Times: "We look forward to
demonstrating
to Ofcom that the charges we propose for ITV are consistent with our
regulatory obligations."

Meanwhile, BSkyB is about to attempt to win Freeview viewers to its pay-TV
platform by airing a two-hour special episode of cult drama 24 on its Sky
Travel channel. Sky Travel is part of the Freeview line-up, whereas Sky
One
- 24's normal home - is only available in Sky and cable subscription
packages. 24 will air on Sky Travel and Sky One on January 30, and after
that only on Sky One.

Sky CFO to join EMI
Former BSkyB chief financial officer Martin Stewart is joining music
publisher EMI as its CFO, and will step up to joint chief executive next
year.

--
Dave F

It's about time someone called Skys bluff. Pirates of the high airwaves.

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 18:36:38 +0000, Dave Fawthrop wrote:
Just found this:
[stuff I'm not interested in snipped]

Meanwhile, BSkyB is about to attempt to win Freeview viewers to its pay-TV
platform by airing a two-hour special episode of cult drama 24 on its Sky
Travel channel. Sky Travel is part of the Freeview line-up, whereas Sky One
- 24's normal home - is only available in Sky and cable subscription
packages. 24 will air on Sky Travel and Sky One on January 30, and after
that only on Sky One.

What a bunch of *******s.

As a fan of 24 I was disappointed that Sky one the contract for the
later seasons, but trying to tempt us with a single episode is a bit too
much.

Anyway, I'll just watch it next week :)

--
Dave

Taz [email protected] wrote:

: It's about time someone called Skys bluff. Pirates of the high airwaves.

Err! Actually Sky's charges are largely AGREED by Ofcom (as ITV are likely to
shortly discover!)

"Colin" wrote in message
...

"tim" wrote in message
...

The mapping of Sky subscribers to a region is outside the regulation
ability of Ofcom at present. This is why the BBC had to play a game of
brinkmanship with Sky a year or so ago. In the end Sky didn't want the
BBC out of the EPG (and thus create the option that people could watch
satellite TV with a box which didn't have any ability to upgrade to
receive Sky paid for channels)

I'm watching BBC on a box that can't be upgraded to Sky at this very
minute.

Why does having an EPG number (if that's the correct term) force you to
watch with a box that uses it?

tim

It doesn't.

But if the BBC had not remained on the Sky EPG, but was still broadcast on
Astra, very quickly many more people would have cottoned on to the fact
that you can watch many Satellite TV channels without a Skybox (especially
if the BBC had launched one of its 'free advertising campaigns' for the
new service). This would have severely hampered Skys future growth
potential.

Um, I was just playing Devil's advocate before, but now I really
don't understand.

Why would someone, who didn't already have a sky box, but
decided that they wanted to take advantage of the BBC's now FTA
satellite channels, suffer the black hole that is Sky's CS dept, plug
the box into a phone line, etc etc, to acquire a sky box (with EPG),
when they just need to buy a 39.99 generic digibox (without EPG?)?
Believe me, selecting BBC1 is as easy as 123 (or 568).
OK, they might not actually know that the generic box IS enough,
but the availibity (or not) of EPG on sky boxes isn't going to change
this.

OTOH,

Why would someone who already had an out of contract sky box,
throw it away and buy a genic digibox just because they can?

I can see why the BBC wanted to remain in 'their' channels on the
EPG, I can't see why Sky should care other than on the basis that
some money is better than none at all.

tim