"Must carry" duty for Sky may not be in bill

Reports in the national press today suggest that although the BBC and C4 have been lobbying hard for a "must carry" "at cost" option to be forced on Sky Digital that the government will not include this in the upcoming Communications Bill.

The Bill, expected to be published tomorrow, was believed to have included a "must carry" option for Sky Digital. But sources now suggest that although the parliamentary committee overseeing the bill were in favour, the government has decided not to include this option.

As Digital Spy reported last month, the BBC are worried that their cost of carriage will go up substantially when they renegotiate their Sky Digital carriage fees next year. Greg Dyke, BBC director-general, was reported to be threatening to remove the BBC channels from the Sky platform if he didn't get a reasonable deal. Dyke along with Channel 4's chief executive Mark Thompson and ITV's Mick Desmond have been lobbying hard for the government to include a "must carry" option which is already a requirement of the UK's cable operators.

More on Digital Spy as the story evolves.