Virgin Media to challenge Sky in the High Court

Virgin Media has today filed legal proceedings in the High Court over Sky's withdrawal of its "basic" channels from Virgin Media's TV service.

The proceedings also seek a remedy for what Virgin calls the "onerous" rates imposed by Sky for carriage of Virgin Media TV channels, including Living, Bravo and Trouble, on Sky's own TV service.

Virgin Media chief executive, Steve Burch, said: "This dispute is one very specific example of how UK consumers are being denied the benefits of a diverse, dynamic and competitive pay TV market. Litigation is obviously a serious step and a last resort but we are determined to have these issues resolved as quickly and fairly as possible."

The proceedings are based on Section 18 of the UK Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty, which prohibit a company from abusing its dominant position.

Sky accounts for almost 70% of the UK's pay TV subscribers and Virgin says the company is "engaged in a strategy to stifle competition by using its dominance against Virgin Media."

Virgin claims Sky rejected an offer by Virgin Media to resolve these issues through legally binding arbitration by an independent expert.