EC investigates BskyB

The European Commission (EC) has launched a competition investigation into British Sky Broadcasting's (BskyB) agreements with other media producers, such as Disney and Discovery channels.

BSkyB's exclusive contracts for such channels have stirred up concern in the iTV industry, and a ‘recent’ complaint is currently being investigated, according to the EC. A spokesperson said: ‘We have received a complaint alleging that BSkyB’s deals with these two channels may infringe competition law in the EU. There is no deadline for resolution of this, as the investigation is an ongoing process.’

The spokesperson would not specify which competitor made the complaint. The contracts in question prevent some channels from being offered rival ITV Digital, the commercial digital terrestrial service jointly owned by television groups Granada and Carlton Communications. Strangely, the two rivals recently signed a co-marketing deal for the UK with BT.

BSkyB has reportedly dismissed the complaint as groundless, and refused to offer further comment.

The UK’s Office of Fair Trading is also conducting an investigation into BSkyB’s bundling of wholesale pay-television channels. This began in December last year, and was originally scheduled to finish within six months. However, a spokesperson for OFT said: ‘This is a particularly complex case – we have been given a huge amount of information, and the deadline has been extended so that all the evidence can be considered.’

BSkyB caters to a total of 5.3m subscribers. The company is due to report annual results on July 25, with analysts predicting increases in pre-tax losses.

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