UK Competition Commission confirms Sky pay-TV ruling

Regulators investigating British Sky Broadcasting’s dominant position in the UK pay-TV movies market have confirmed a previous ruling that the broadcaster was not stifling competition, in spite of protests from rival providers.

The Competition Commission reiterated its provisional decision in May that the rise of online pay-TV providers such as Netflix and Lovefilm had cut BSkyB’s dominance in the area. The media watchdog said that Sky’s dominant position in owning most of the rights to distribute new movies in the UK “did not adversely affect competition in the pay-TV retail market.” The commission concluded that Sky Movies, which broadcasts movies from all six of Hollywood’s leading studios, was “not a sufficient driver of subscribers’ choice of pay-TV provider to give Sky such an advantage over its rivals ... as to harm competition.”