CSI:Ofcom — the Pay TV investigation two years later …
I am a big critic of Ofcom’s Pay TV investigation. It looks like a solution in search of a problem and it has dragged on far too long. The real kicker: There’s probably not much that can come of it that will ever benefit television viewers in the UK. It looks like a forthcoming litigation-fest to me.
Steve Unger, competition policy director for Ofcom, sent this letter to the MediaGuardian today:
Although the “argument” over the future of Pay TV may have been raging for over three years (TV review: Ofcom’s three-year Sky drama is set to run and run, 25 May), we launched our investigation in March 2007, and we received the first submission from Sky’s competitors that we were able to disclose to Sky in June of that year, slightly less than two years ago.
In the course of our work we have faced the challenge of a huge volume of submissions from interested parties, the last of which we received as late as last week. As Steve Hewlett says: “Once you appreciate some of this detail you can begin to see that the scope for legal challenge and counter-challenge is almost endless.” That is why, as ever, we are being thorough in our research and analysis as we make our own independent assessment of the competition issues.
We recognise the commercial challenges currently being faced by companies in this sector, and the need to reach closure on the current regulatory debate, and we will be setting out our proposed way forward this month.
Well, despite the complexity here, I think Ofcom needs to recognise that its delay is unacceptable and has undoubtedly harmed Sky’s legitimate commercial interests.
Think about it … back in March 2007 when Ofcom started looking into this matter nobody knew who Barack Obama was. Yeah, it’s been that long!
Want a comparison that is more on-point? The telecoms strategic review, a regulatory intervention of significantly more importance to the UK economy, took about 1 year and 9 months to conclude — start to finish. Moreover, the telecoms strategic review commenced just as Ofcom was formed from its merger of the legacy regulators. This Pay TV matter is a minnow by comparison and commenced well after Ofcom became a seasoned regulator. Amazingly, the Pay TV consultation started with a big dispute about Ofcom’s delay in getting it started. It only got worse.
(Another, obscure procedural point: What submission did Ofcom receive last week? There is no way to determine with Ofcom’s dysfunctional consultation website system when an interested party submits a document on a pending policy matter. Other interested parties and the public are deprived of any ability to review the documents. Ofcom really needs to work on its fairness and transparency in these types of matters.)
“Well, despite the complexity here, I think Ofcom needs to recognise that its delay is unacceptable and has undoubtedly harmed Sky’s legitimate commercial interests”
I fundamentaly disagree with your premise that Ofcom is damaging BSkyB’s business. If Ofcom’s proposals caused irreparable damage to the business, then they would not be allowed to continue this action.
The reality is that lowering prices will actually increase Sky’s revenues from its premium channels due to an increased number of subscribers.
BSkyB is part of one of the worlds largest media companies, if Sky can defeat a determined regulator, then the UK market is wide open to be dominated in all forms of media.
Sky is far from a helpless company, it has still got hold of the 18% of ITV that it bought in 2006 for £940 million (it blocked the Virgin merger with ITV),despite being told to sell by the competition commission, it fights on in court.
In addition Rupert Murdoch champions David Cameron the Conservative Leader and probable PM (he wont get my vote I am 57yrs old and do not have a gold plated pension and dont appreciate waiting untill 66yrs of age),Cameron has written a number of articles for the SUN newspaper.
Cameron is of a like mind with Rupert Murdoch,they both have issues with Ofcom and the BBC. Both of wich Cameron has stated he will deal with when elected.
Ofcom he calls a Quango and has stated he will strip it of policy making powers and the BBC he called bloated, in the SUN newspaper and has made it clear he feels they should not expand and he will make them concentrate on core activities,freeze the licence fee and slash staff wages. The election will be in the spring, one anticipates that BskyB will hope they can keep all regulators at bay until this time.
If we look at the market place,except for the BBC no else offers competition to SKY which I do not think is at all healthy.
So in conclusion, I wish the regulators GOD SPEED and I sincerely hope they are able to bring more competition to the market place and the general public can benifit from cheaper prices and more competition.