Ofcom are the ants at Sky’s Picnic
Thursday, May 15th, 2008Picnic basket shut until next year
Sky’s Picnic pay-TV service on Freeview will be launched until this time next year, if at all, after Ofcom announced that the ongoing inquiry into whether the service will be damaging to competition within the digital TV market.
Sky wants to replace its Sky Three channel on Freeview with a range of other entertainment, news and sports channels, allowing DTT customers to get access to selection of Sky’s premier content, presumably, Sky One, Sky News and some of the Sky Sports channels.
Ofcom has now said that is has to consider the bigger picture with regard to the Picnic proposals and how it will affect the pay-TV market as a whole, and not just Freeview customers. Factors influencing this will be the result of the Sky and Virgin Missing Channels saga, and a separate investigation launched concerning Sky’s dominant position in the marketplace.
The regulator said that: “Ofcom [has] recognised that there are issues raised by the Sky proposal that will inform the [wider] market investigation and vice versa.”
Sky proposed Picnic over a year ago - this further delay will be very frustrating for the satcaster, who see the provision of their sports content on Freeview as not being any different to Setanta selling their Setanta Sports pack to terrestrial viewers.
Mike Darcey, Sky’s chief operating officer, said: “Ofcom has already recognised that Picnic would deliver increased choice, and it is disappointing that customers will be denied these benefits by an extended regulatory process. More than a year has passed since our initial application, with no definitive conclusion in sight.”
