Youth TV channel Rapture TV has begun a court appeal to a ruling made by media regulator OfCom in relation to the station's appearance on Sky's electronic programme guide. As previously reported, Rapture claimed the satellite network breached its regulatory obligations when it demanded £76,800 off the TV channel to be listed on the Sky system. When Rapture originally complained, OfCom ruled that Sky had reached the rate in a "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" way, even though they were asking for half of the independent channel's annual turnover.
Appealing that ruling at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, lawyer Michael Bowsher, representing Rapture, said: "The question for the tribunal is whether Ofcom did enough. Our ending point is that Ofcom did not do enough. It was happy to accept Sky's position without drilling down on what was being said. It seems that Ofcom have taken undue comfort from the [proposed] charge being between the floor and the ceiling [of Sky's general EPG fees] but it doesn't mean that any price between the floor and the ceiling is fair, reasonable or non-discriminatory. That is the core of our case. It seems that Ofcom's position has been that as long as it is between the floor and the ceiling it is fine".
The case will continue today. The ruling, if it goes in Rapture's favour, could be important because it would force OfCom to change how it investigates disputes like this, and would also provide other smaller TV channels with ammunition for challenging the EPG rates they pay. Rapture has not been available via the Sky EPG since OfCom's original ruling earlier this year.