That’ll Cost You, Sport – 12

As widely trailed, Ofcom has reported following its enquiry into competition in the TV industry. And Rupe’s troops at Sky are not happy bunnies: unless the inevitable appeal succeeds, they will have to lower the price charged to competitors for content from the Sky Sports 1 and 2 channels.

The pay TV market is dominated by Sky: the broadcaster has an estimated 85% of total subscribers. So, unless rival providers were to massively increase their share of that market, the downside to Rupe’s empire seems small – especially as HD channels are exempt from the Ofcom ruling, allowing Sky to claw back the costs of bringing new technology to the market.

But that doesn’t wash with the Murdoch empire: Rupe and Junior don’t like regulation – any regulation. The Murdochs prefer places where they can do as they please, and serve up what they want, typified by their rise in the US cable market with the slanted and wayward “journalism” of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse). And, as the EU does regulation on a level Rupe doesn’t like, he and his media outlets are uniformly hostile to it.

However, help may be at hand for the Interfering Foreigner: Young Dave, who by the most fortunate of coincidences has won the backing of Rupe and Junior in the upcoming General Election campaign, has said that Ofcom, in its current form, will be abolished by a future Tory Government.

So that’s all fair and above board, then.