Sky Remains Movie Leader, Say Ofcom

Sky's grip on the UK movie market remains tight despite competition from Netflix and LoveFilm.
According to UK regulator, Ofcom, Sky still holds the rights to the most attractive and most recent movie content from the six major movie studios.
Previously the Competition Comission (CC) had said that Sky’s control over pay-TV movie rights was restricting competition between pay-TV providers, leading to higher prices and reduced choice and innovation for subscribers.
The CC had however recently said that they would reassess the market now that companies like Netflix and LoveFilm where challenging the broadcaster.
Ofcom, in a letter to the CC, however has recommended that they maintain their previous stance saying that: "the arrival of Netflix and the expansion of LOVEFiLM into digital video streaming should not be overestimated or overstated."
Ofcom said that while it recognised that in the long-term there was the potential for the OTT SVoD services from LOVEFiLM and Netflix to have a positive impact on competition, the future development of these new services remained uncertain.
"LOVEFiLM and Netflix clearly have ambitions in the pay-TV retail market, but their ability to compete directly with Sky on a sustainable basis is not certain and critically dependent on access to compelling content which is currently controlled by Sky and likely to remain so," concluded Ofcom.
(LB)