One of the longest-running battles in television history has gone into extra time after BT won an appeal to force another look at the wholesale cost of carrying Sky Sports on its channels.
The Court of Appeal yesterday overruled a Competition Appeals Tribunal decision that appeared to have drawn a line under a bitter dispute between BSkyB and several of its rivals.
Lord Justice Aikens judged that a tribunal decision in 2012 had been based on an “incomplete set of conclusions” that amounted to “errors of law” and he ordered the tribunal to reopen the case. The tribunal, in turn, had overruled Ofcom’s decision that Sky had abused its market position and should cut the wholesale cost of supplying Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports