The UK’s lack of a single regulatory regime that covers telecoms, payTV and other converged media is hurting consumers, according to Sean Williams, director of strategy at incumbent operator BT.
Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum in London…
The UK’s lack of a single regulatory regime that covers telecoms, payTV and other converged media is hurting consumers, according to Sean Williams, director of strategy at incumbent operator BT.
Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum in London today, Williams criticised the apparent disconnect between the “very structured, very rational but highly interventionist” telecoms regulating regime and the “ad hoc” approach to other media, particularly the payTV sector.
He pointed to how 90% of BT’s customers subscribe to bundled services, but because the UK does not have a coherent single regime that covers these markets as a whole, consumers are paying more than they need to and are also suffering from limited choice.
“What we need is a clear regulatory regime that’s fit for purpose for the markets it’s designed to operate in. And we don’t have that today,” he said.
According to Williams, local regulator Ofcom should have the power to engage in the kinds of tasks it currently conducts in the telecoms sector across the entire converged market, including the ability to define markets in the way that they operate, assessing the state of competition in payTV markets and content markets generally, and to identify market failures and market power.
Ofcom was unable to comment before the press deadline.
