BT calls for Ofcom inquiry into Sky
BT has called on industry watchdog Ofcom to expand its Digital Communications Review to tackle Sky's dominance of the pay-television sector.
“Sky has benefited from a situation where there’s been very little or weak regulation,” John Petter, chief executive of BT’s consumer division, said in a speech to the Broadcasting Press Guild in London.
"Sky has gone to great lengths to keep the forces away from regulating pay TV."
It marks an escalation of tensions between the two media giants, with Sky recently calling on Ofcom to make BT hive off its Openreach network.
Read more: Sky requests competition inquiry into BT's broadband dominance
In his speech Petter said "high prices and poor outcomes for consumers" were arising due to a lack of competition in pay-TV.
"Whereas in the energy market regulators have criticised the Big Six operators, in pay-TV Sky has a 64 per cent per cent share, so there is really only the Big One."
A Sky spokesman said: "The reality is that, in a competitive market, customers are choosing Sky in greater numbers and staying with us for longer because of the quality and value that we offer."
"This looks like an attempt to deflect attention from the real problems that exist in broadband, where consumers are suffering because of BT's underinvestment and there is concern about competition in the future."