The UK’s ONdigital is locked into a dispute over what is perceived to be BSkyB’s reluctance to supply the much-coveted Sky Sports 2 channel to the digital terrestrial operator.
Responding to widely publicised comments made by new BSkyB chief executive Tony Ball last week, an ONdigital spokesman suggested that BSkyB was itself dragging its feet over the supply to ONdigital of Sky Sports 2 and said that the ‘points issue’, whereby no single supplier is permitted to supply more than a quarter of ONdigital’s programming output, had "more or less" been cleared up.
It is believed that ONdigital made representations to the ITC, the UK commercial television regulator, about two months ago over BSkyB’s apparent reluctance to supply the channel. ONdigital has not yet claimed that it has enough non-BSkyB channels to give it sufficient number of points to qualify for Sky Sports 2. However, the actual figure is disputed and ONdigital believes that the launch on the platform of MTV and, more controversially, BBC Knowledge on Multiplex A, brings it very close to the mark. BSkyB’s view is apparently different. The ITC is currently trying to bring about a common understanding of how many non-BSkyB channel points ONdigital has.
ONdigital has previously stated that BSkyB was willing to make Sky Sports 2 available as soon as the points system allowed. BBC Knowledge’s contribution to ONdigital’s non-BSkyB points is one of the possible points of difference between the two. The BBC channel is temporarily using a Multiplex A frequency and, as such, is temporarily subject to ITC regulation. "There are lots of different ways of adding the points up," said ONdigital’s spokesman. "We think the points issue can be dealt with. We are continuing to talk to Sky."
A BSkyB spokesman said: "Once the points system is sorted they can have Sky Sports 2. But we are very annoyed that they can take all our sport, add their Champion’s League, and say that they have more sport than us. So we are hopeful that the Office of Fair Trading will see sense prevail. If not we will have a competitive response."
At the presentation of BSkyB’s year-end results, Tony Ball pointedly criticised ONdigital’s refusal to make available its exclusive rights to the UEFA Champions League and hinted at retaliatory measures. The latest issue of the Sky Guide revealed that the UEFA Cup will be shown on Sky Sports News (there was no confirmation as to the likely whereabouts of the Ryder Cup). Ball was heavily critical of the fact that, while BSkyB was obliged to make its programming available to ONdigital, the latter did not seem to be obliged to do the same for BSkyB.
ONdigital’s spokesman hit back at Ball’s comments about sports rights. "This is a company which owns virtually every sports right in the known universe," he said. "And it [argues] that a company that has one and a bit sports rights should hand over the bit it possesses. It’s a bit like a shark swimming up to a small fish and asking ‘would you like to join me for lunch?’" However, he said, the fact that BSkyB saw fit to make mischief in this way showed that it "regards us as significant rivals." He said it also showed that the UEFA Champions League was a highly sought after event, perhaps "more important than the national leagues".
