Sports associations protest over Sky ruling

Ofcom tells broadcaster to slash prices for rivals to show matches

The governing bodies for cricket, rugby union and Premier League football were yesterday united in their condemnation of Ofcom's plans to force BSkyB to slash the charges for rivals to broadcast its matches.

The Premier League, The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) said the move would cut funding significantly, leading to less investment in the grassroots and less overall quality on the pitch.

Ofcom announced in June that it was set to force Sky to offer its premium broadcasting – including sports and Hollywood movies – to rivals including Virgin and BT at cheaper wholesale prices. It yesterday published the responses to the third phase of the review.

The proposals have left Sky furious and, last week, chairman James Murdoch said the move represented "a threat to the climate for investment" in the UK.

The Premier League called Ofcom's latest consultation "fatally flawed in a number of key areas" adding it was "ill-conceived and unnecessary".

"Given the absence of any real identifiable consumer harm, it is impossible to understand why Ofcom persists in trying to radically intervene," the league's lawyers DLA Piper said in yesterday's 132-page submission.

The sporting bodies fear that the regulator's remedies will remove incentives to bid on content rights. The Premier League said it would "devalue Premier League rights which will harm the Premier League member clubs, football and most importantly consumers. The same is true for other UK sports and this can only lead to less investment."

The RFU added that Ofcom "massively underestimates" the effect of the proposals, saying the value of its live, terrestrial and mobile rights would fall 60 per cent. It believes the subsequent fall in investment would mean a reduction in coverage for lesser matches, less support for the grassroots game and a reduction in its donations to charitable foundations.

The ECB said it relies on competitive broadcasters to secure good returns for its media rights that then allow it to invest in the game.

"The situation would in fact be worse for consumers if the value of sports rights was diminished and this led to a reduction in the quality of sporting competitions that depend on revenue from the sale of broadcasting rights."

David Collier, chief executive of the ECB, said the body was "very concerned" Ofcom had not called for its point of view. "This approach heightens our concerns that Ofcom has pre-determined its views on the subject and will seek a remedy that could have a very damaging impact on cricket in this country."

The cricketing body, along with the RFU, intends to raise its concerns with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It said the remedies were "backdoor regulatory mechanisms" that would allow operators to "just sit back and free load on the investment of others".

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson has called Sky a "dominant incumbent with an iron grip on the supply of key content that uses all its muscle to prevent competitors coming into the market".

Beancounters back England's 2018 bid

The tournament doesn't kick off for another nine years and no decision has yet been made on the host nation, but PricewaterhouseCoopers has already signed up as the first corporate sponsor of a 2018 World Cup in England.

The accountancy firm said it was the first company to back the bid team's efforts to secure the World Cup for England in nine years' time and appealed to other corporate sponsors to follow suit.

In practice, the sponsorship entails a 14-strong PwC team being made available to advise the bid team with independent counsel on tax, finance and investment. The accountants said a successful bid for the tournament would be worth £3.2bn to Britain's economy.

Fifa is due to make a decision on the 2018 tournament next December, with England facing competition from rivals including Australia and Russia. But no one else has PwC on board.