Ofcom Dismisses BT Complaint to Side with BSkyB

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has dismissed a complaint from BT who claim BSkyB discriminated against them by blocking their multi-million pound TV advertisement.

BT complained in February that BSKyB would not carry their BT Sports advertisements, dosage pills a new TV channel to rival Sky Sports, particularly in their coverage of the Premier League.

However, Ofcom have dismissed the complaint and ruled that BSkyB was ‘pursuing a legitimate commercial interest’ by banning promotion of their rivals’ coverage.

BSkyB described BT’s demand as ‘a bit like Tesco expecting to advertise inside Sainsbury’s’ and said they were ‘pleased’ at Ofcom’s outcome.

The rejection comes a day after Ofcom launched a separate investigation into whether BSkyB was in the wrong for withholding Sky Sports channels from BT’s rival YouView pay-TV offering.

BT complained to Ofcom over the issue and accused BSkyB of acting in an ‘unreasonable and discriminatory manner.’

The response from their competitor was that the complaint was ‘completely without merit.’

BT Sport is considered to be one of the first major threats to the dominance of Sky Sports News, particularly in their coverage of the English Premier League.

BT will show 38 live games next season, as well as football from Brazil, Italy, France and Germany, on top of a whole range of other live sport, including Aviva Premiership Rugby.

They have also made their sport channel free to BT broadband customers.