"Break Up Sky!" Demand TV Rivals - Again June 3, 2007
Read more Entertainment , Gizmodo UK , HDTV , Home Entertainment , TV
It’s the classic case of multi-billion pound spilt milk but Sky’s key rivals have covertly approached TV regulator Ofcom to demand that Sky be broken up.
Virgin Media, BT Vision, Setanta and Top Up TV all want the satellite broadcaster sliced and diced because, essentially, they can’t compete with it. They claim Sky has an unhealthy dominance of the marketplace, which is true, and that if Sky is broken up there will be more competition. However, Sky hasn’t even seen the official proposal from its rivals: A spokesman told the Independent on Sunday:
“We're in the increasingly odd position of not having seen this submission. The reluctance of these four companies to put their case fully to us does not indicate the greatest conviction in their arguments.”
Sky has weathered such investigations in the past but it may be forced this time, at the least, to make the wholesale prices it charges for its content more transparent. For us, it means that rivals could offer services like Sky Movies and Sports at more competitive rates.
This is all good but, just don’t hold your breath.-Martin Lynch
Editor | Martin Lynch
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Comments
Oh, woop-de-doo. Let's all praise the nice companies for trying to compete with big evil Sky. Let's look at the success that we've seen so far in this field:
I like football and golf.
Without competition: I pay £20 to Sky and they give me football and golf.
With competition: I pay £20 to Sky and they give me football, but for golf I also have to pay £15 a month to Setanta.
Hmm. But yeah, competition *is* great, isn't it?
Ive been with NTL/Virgin and they were the worst company ive ever dealt with. 6 months later and over 20 phone calls later they still owe ME £60 but never hold good on there promise to send me the payment. Ive given up and willing to just let them have it no matter how wrong that is i just cant face the stress of having to speak to there idiot call centres.
I wouldnt go back with the other providers even if they were free. Sky offers me a great service! Yes its slightly more than other providers but id rather pay more for hasslefree service.
been with sky for solong cant even remember when we joined, never had any problems. ditto the comment about competition actually increasing the cost of sports!
i must admit sky are an amazing company and the reason they are so powerful is because they know how to look after their customers unlike virgin media!!!!!!!
I joined Virgin/NTL in February and haven't looked back. Sky was a nightmare. We had outages for days at a time. It would take weeks to get people to come out and look at the dish. Plus they never got our internet service to work properly. Blah!