BT wins latest round of TV battle with BSkyB

Telecoms group BT has won the latest round in its legal battle with arch-rival BSkyB over screening TV sport.

The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal gave an interim ruling on Wednesday that BSkyB must allow BT to show its Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 channels on BT's Youview set-top box.

BSkyB had previously refused to allow BT to screen the channels on Youview, meaning BT was only able to show them on its older boxes.

The situation arose because an earlier decision by regulator Ofcom forcing Sky to wholesale Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 to rivals at regulated rates, known as the 'wholesale must-offer ruling', did not cover the Youview system.

The latest ruling is part of a long-running dispute between BT and Sky over their ability to show each other's sports channels.

BT wants to show Sky's full range of sports channels on its TV, but Sky argues that BT is refusing to allow it to wholesale its BT Sport channels on Sky boxes at prices set by Sky.

A BT spokesman said: "BT has always maintained Ofcom was correct to impose the ‘wholesale must-offer’ on Sky and this remedy remains essential to address the significant competition concerns with Sky’s supply of its channels. We look forward to being able to offer these channels to our Youview customers very shortly."

Sky said it was more than happy to wholesale its sports channels to rivals at commercial rates, but added that any negotiation should include reciprocal rights.

A Sky Spokesperson commented: “Today’s judgement is a purely interim measure with no impact on the ongoing legal process or the CAT’s previous dismissal of the core argument in favour of WMO.

"Ofcom itself is reviewing WMO in light of market developments and we continue to believe that this unwarranted obligation should be removed entirely.”

BT's shares closed 9.1p up at 371.3 in London. BSkyB's stock rose 13.5p or 1.5% to 892.5p.