The Competition Commission has been looking at Sky’s dominance in the UK movies market, and ruled that it is non-competitive, and costing UK viewers far more than it should.
As you know, Sky has gambled heavily that being king of Sport, Movies, and now HD channels, will make it the number one choice for those looking to get more than the standard TV channels. BSkyB has spent a lot of money acquiring the rights to the major sporting events, and has deals in place with the six top Hollywood studios to bring blockbuster movies to Sky Movies Premiere and Box Office ahead of the competition.
The Cost of Sky Movies
At the moment, signing up to the Sky Movies package costs £16 a month, in addition to the £20 for the basic Sky satellite TV service. For that, you get 400 movies a month. Sky’s HD service is an extra £10, totalling £46 a month. That brings you ten Sky Movies channels, including Sky Premiere. The latest movies appear on Sky Box Office service first, where you can expect to pay £4 a movie. Films from Sky are also available on the on-demand Sky Anytime+ service, for those with Sky Broadband.
The Competition Commission has ruled that UK consumers may be paying £50m to £60m too much per year to watch movies.
What might change?
The ruling is that Sky’s stranglehold on movies is too great and needs to be weakened. At the moment, it’s not clear how this will be done, but possible options include:
- Restrictions on the deals that can be done between Sky and the movie studios
- Sky may be forced to offer movies at wholesale prices to rivals such as BT Vision and Virgin
- Rivals may be able to get access to Video On Demand deals, allowing them to compete with Sky’s “first-to-Pay TV” deals
In 2010, we saw Sky forced to offer Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 to rivals such as BT Vision and Top Up TV, which has been welcomed by sports fans in the UK. (How to get cheaper Sky Sports). We could see something similar happen to movies, if the findings of the Competition Commission are enforced.
Don’t expect a quick decision, or a sudden drop in the Sky Movies subscription though. The Competition Commission is currently inviting comments, and won’t release its findings and final decision until August 2012.
Any comments on the price of Sky for movies? Add your thoughts below.
Sky scum greedy bastards
Not a lot anybody can do about it as most of our MP’s are in Ruperts pocket.
I have sky but I’ve just cancelled by sky movies subscription. I probably would have kept it if it was half the price, but £16 a month for endless repeats is a bit much. Total Recall must be on every night! I’ll be going back to a postal DVD subscription which I feel is much better value for money.
@ chris k well said like it…
lets be honest, its not just sky movies, everything by sky costs too much! £10 a month just for hd is a bit ridiculous when its free on virgin, and also another ridiculous charge is the £10 they charge just to be able to watch it in another room, and they have millions of £££ so clearly, with the amount of money they get, they can still survive is they cut the price by as much as 60% and scrap the pathetic HD charge and the ridiculous multiroom charge.
i have just cancelled sky movies as well but the price didnt come down by £16, its come down by £8 so am now wondering why this is?
Not sure – you may need to ask Sky
Rachel – do you have sky sports? If you do, then the movies cost £8 per month. Without sky sports, movies cost £16.
Sky are grabbing greedy bastards we got rid of their overpriced crap ages ago , it’s not worth the money