Virgin Media draws first blood in BSkyB channel carriage marathon

[BGonaSTICK]

BSkyB has lost an appeal on the composition of the legal team used by Virgin Media in the cablenet’s action over basic channel carriage.

“The hearing was about purely procedural matters. It does not affect the substantive issues or our resolve to defend ourselves against Virgin Media’s misconceived and groundless claim,” Sky said in a statement.

Sky was concerned that the use of same members of the legal team could potentially cause conflict with other ongoing cases involving Virgin such as the Competition Commission tribunal on Sky’s 19.9% holding in ITV.

Sky has now handed over 8,800 documents as part of the case, 7,900 of which were previously deemed to be confidential.

The cablenet has taken Sky to High Court claiming it has used a dominant market position to cut the amount it pays for Virgin Media TV channels while increasing the carriage fees for its own basic channels.

The full case is not anticipated to be heard until early in 2009, almost two years after Sky’s basic channels were removed from the Virgin line-up.

Source: broadbandtvnews