Advanced Television

Virgin still trying to stop YouView

October 27, 2010

Neil Berkett, Virgin Media CEO, has used the company’s results announcement to attack Ofcom’s decision not to investigate YouView, the BBC-originated platform to bring VoD to Freeview and Freesat. Berkett said he surmised Ofcom had seen its 25 per cent budget cut coming and has wrongly ‘deprioritised’ the issue.

“When you have less resources to play with, they have to prioritise what they do and clearly this is a big piece of work, one of the most significant developments since the launch of digital TV.” He said his company which had its formal complaint to Ofcom dismissed, was still reviewing a broad range of options available to continue to pursue a regulatory investigation into YouView including the option of a judicial review and appealing to the European Union.

“Of course they argue it will benefit consumers in the short term but what about the impact on the market and consumers in the medium and long term,” said Berkett. “All options are available to us and we are reviewing them.”

Categories: Articles, Cable, Regulation