Footie fans could find themselves watching Premiership football next season via Sky Sports without having a satellite dish or subscription package with Sky.

Ofcom is expected to try and force Sky to offer its Sky Sports and Sky Movie packages to other broadcasters to air over Freeview or internet services like BT Vision.

Currently Sky only provides Sky Sports and Sky Movies to Virgin Media, however that could be about to change with Ofcom believing the current pricing is too high and that Virgin Media's reach isn't big enough to include the whole nation.

As a sweetener to the deal, the watchdog is expected to allow Sky to offer Picnic - a service it has to offer the trade - directly to consumers, effectively allowing the company to resurrect the service.

First touted in 2007, the Picnic offering will let customers pick "simple, flexible options to combine the services that they want" from Sky's TV, broadband and phone services.

However the project was shelved in 2008 when Ofcom virtually vetoed the idea:

"The blunt truth is that Ofcom has spent 18 months looking at our proposals and there is no end in sight. The Picnic team have done everything they can to prepare for launch and there's nothing left to be achieved until Ofcom makes its mind up", a sky spokesman said in 2008.

Via: telegraph.co.uk

Recommended articles