BSKYB TO CO-OPERATE WITH COMPETITION INQUIRY

FOLLOWING the announcement by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that they are to conduct an inquiry into BSkyB under the Competition Act, a spokesman for the company noted the transition of their current inquiry to one under the new legislation and commented:
“Sky will continue to co-operate with the OFT which, with a new Director General, has taken advantage of new legislation to transition the administration of their existing inquiry from one being held under the Fair Trading Act to one under the Competition Act. We look forward to an early conclusion to this inquiry.”
The move follows an OFT review of undertakings given by the company in1996 to meet concerns about competition in the market for wholesale pay-tv.
BSkyB have been released from one undertaking which deals with conduct now regulates which deals with conduct now regulated by the ITC and will shortly be released from another undertaking which only applies to analogue TV.
The investigation is expected to take six months.
The OFT said no assumption could be made on whether there had been an infringement of the regulations.
(CD)