Branson slams BSkyB’s hold on pay-TV content

 Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, has attacked Rupert Murdoch’s vast media network over the dominance of British Sky Broadcasting in the UK’s pay television market.
Writing on FT.com, Branson likened BSkyB to British Airways in 1990, when the airline held exclusive rights to flying between London’s Heathrow airport and the US. Branson hopes that, as happened in the 1990s, regulatory changes will encourage lower prices and greater choice for consumers.
Media regulator Ofcom has been consulting on its plan to force BSkyB to offer its premium channels to rivals to increase competition in the pay-TV market. Virgin Media, in which Branson’s Virgin Group holds a 6.5 per cent stake, has led the regulatory challenge to BSkyB alongside other subscription rivals. Branson hints that Virgin Media and its peers could pass on to its customers any price discount for subscriptions to BSkyB’s Premiership football and new film releases demanded by Ofcom.
"Under Ofcom’s proposals, some operators could plan to retail Sky Sports 1 at a price more than 20 per cent below the lowest price that channel can currently be bought from BSkyB," he said. Consumers would not have to buy ‘bundles’ of channels that they do not want, he added.
BSkyB Chairman James Murdoch, addressing the satellite broadcaster’s AGM, said that the Ofcom proposals to intervene in the pay-TV market represented a threat to the climate for investment in this country. "Indeed, regulators should respect the free operation of the marketplace and contemplate intervention only on the evidence of abuse or of a breach of competition law," said Murdoch.
"The interests of consumers are best served by businesses which invest and compete fairly, not by regulators who attempt to re-shape a market to their own design. On behalf of shareholders, and in the interests of a positive business climate, we will resist any such attempt to control the market in this way," he stated.