Ofcom: Sky allowed to ban BT Sport adverts

Ofcom has backed Sky's decision to ban BT Sport from advertising its service on the Sky Sports TV channels.

BT had accused the satellite broadcaster of "undue discrimination" for refusing to air adverts for the new BT Sport channels, which launch this August, and asked TV regulator Ofcom to investigate.

In its ruling, published today, Ofcom found that Sky not accepting BT advertising "[amounted] to discriminatory behaviour" but said that it had "not unduly discriminated against BT in that respect".

"We accept that a broadcaster may in principle have legitimate commercial reasons to refuse advertising from a direct competitor on its own service," Ofcom argued, adding that there is a wide range of other channels on which BT could advertise and reach its intended audience.

A Sky spokesman said: "BT's demands are a bit like Tesco expecting to advertise inside Sainsbury's."

Separately, BT has also complained to Ofcom over Sky's alleged refusal to supply Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 to its YouView service.

Sky's spokesman added: "We are disappointed, but not surprised, that BT has again gone down the regulatory road rather than agree a commercial deal in customers' interests. However, we consider its latest complaint, like those that have gone before, to be entirely without merit."

A rep for BT said of Ofcom's decision: "With regulation, you win some and you lose some. Whilst this decision has gone against us, we are delighted that Ofcom is going to investigate Sky over their refusal to supply us with Sky Sports on YouView. That is a far bigger issue for us than their refusal to show our ads so this has been a good week for BT in terms of regulation."

BT Sport's lineup includes 38 Premier League games per season, including first-pick matches.