Kelvin takes on Murdoch’s Sky sport channels
KELVIN MacKenzie, the ex-editor of The Sun, will today march into battle against BSkyB, potentially going head to head with its majority owner and his former employer Rupert Murdoch.
Sports Tonight, the TV channel founded by MacKenzie, will today challenge the exclusive broadcast agreement between BSkyB and the Football League by lodging a complaint with Ofcom.
Sky Sports has exclusive rights to all games in the Championship, Leagues One and Two, the Carling Cup and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy due to a £195m deal with The Football League.
But Sports Tonight claims that the deal is anti-competitive, arguing in a statement that “a small sports television business needs football”.
It criticised Sky Sports for televising only a small fraction of the total matches per season, denying fans the chance to see their local clubs play, and said it would be interested in bidding for even the early rounds of the Johnstone’s Paint trophy, which will not be shown by Sky.
Sports Tonight accused Sky of “hoarding or warehousing of rights”, which it claims is illegal under EU competition rules.
MacKenzie added: “This agreement is blatantly anti-competitive and I am confident it will be set aside by Ofcom.”
The ex-editor of The Sun could find himself at loggerheads with Rupert Murdoch, whose company News Corp owns 39 per cent of BSkyB.
While Murdoch has reportedly called MacKenzie his “all-time favourite editor”, the media mogul admitted to the Leveson Inquiry last week that he gave MacKenzie “a hell of a bollocking” over the Sun front page “It’s the Sun wot won it” after John Major’s election win in April 1992.
MacKenzie also told Leveson that Murdoch gave him 40 minutes of “non-stop abuse” on the phone after hearing of the £1m payout to Elton John over the false rent boy story.
BSkyB is currently the subject of separate Ofcom probes into whether it is “fit and proper” to own a broadcast licence and into Sky News’ unwarranted access of private emails to uncover criminal activity.
KELVIN AND RUPERT
I did indeed give [MacKenzie] a hell of a bollocking. It was tasteless and wrong.
Rupert Murdoch tells the Leveson Inquiry how he responded to the “It’s the Sun wot won it” front page headline following John Major’s election win in 1992
[Murdoch] gave me 40 minutes of non-stop abuse. He wasn’t pleased.
MacKenzie describes to Leveson how Murdoch reacted to The Sun’s £1m payout to Elton John over the false rent boy story
Rupert Murdoch often felt the paper had gone too far under my editorship.
Kelvin MacKenzie admits to the Leveson Inquiry that he and Rupert Murdoch do not always see eye to eye