Virgin Media has confirmed it is to challenge what it perceives as anti-completive behaviour by Sky. The cablenet today (Thursday) begun proceedings in the High Court in a bid to resolve the long running carriage fee dispute between Virgin and Sky, which culminated in last month’s withdrawal of Sky’s basic channels from Virgin subscribers. Virgin is also seeking to revisit its own carriage fee agreement with Sky over the carriage of Virgin Media channels including Living, Bravo and Trouble on the Sky DTH platform.
Virgin is basing its case on Section 18 of the UK Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty, arguing that Sky is abusing a dominant position, and attempting to stifle competition. It says that while over estimating the value of its own channels it has undervalued those operated by Virgin.
