RICHARD BRANSON - U.K. REGULATOR TO PROBE PAY-TV MARKET

OFCOM, Britain's TV regulator, announced today (Tuesday) that it is launching an investigation into the market for pay-TV, following complaints by Richard Branson's Virgin Media and other U.K. media companies that Rupert Murdoch's Sky Broadcasting is seeking to control the market. Announcement of the probe comes three weeks after Virgin Media's cable service stopped carrying several popular Sky channels, complaining that Sky had unreasonably raised its license rates. On Monday, Britain's National Consumer Council proposed that Virgin and Sky come to a "temporary" agreement so that the channels could return to Virgin's cable system.

20/03/2007