Sky attacks BT for "cheap opportunism"

Sky has accused BT and Virgin Media of "cheap opportunism" after BT Retail's director of strategy told Digital Spy that Setanta's collapse should be taken into account in Ofcom's review of the UK's pay television market.

Shortly after the placing of Setanta's British companies into administration, BT Retail director of strategy Sean Williams told us that the failure "throws into stark relief the market failure in pay TV in the UK" and is "further evidence of the need for Ofcom to remedy the situation swiftly" because "competition in pay TV in the UK is not working effectively".

In response, Sky chief operating officer Mike Darcey told DS tonight: "Setanta ran into difficulties because it tried to grow too fast and lost control of costs. It took on more than £1 billion of sports rights and its private equity backers refused to honour those commitments. It is sad that Setanta’s staff, many of them former Sky employees, must pay the consequences.

"BT and Virgin Media are guilty of cheap opportunism. They are hooked on regulation as a substitute for competition and have done nothing to support UK sport. They prefer to try to get our channels on the cheap while showing no interest in bidding for rights themselves. We’re proud of our track record in sport and will go on investing to bring our viewers the coverage they expect.

"There is nothing in Setanta’s failure that can properly be used as a pretext to hand an advantage to BT or Virgin Media. The UK remains a nation of sports fans and the opportunity is there for a well-run business to come in and be successful."

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