ITV pushes for Sky, Virgin to pay for its channels

By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - Free-to-air commercial broadcaster ITV wants to charge pay-TV rivals such as BSkyB and Virgin Media to carry its channels, saying such a move would give it more money to make programmes. ITV, along with rival public service broadcasters (PSBs) BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, previously paid satellite broadcaster BSkyB to carry its channels. PSBs receive prime position in the pay-TV companies' electronic programme guides, used by about half of Britain's households to plan viewing. The government said last year it wanted the charges scrapped and BSkyB has reached agreement with ITV to drop them. But ITV, the broadcaster of soap opera "Coronation Street" and talent show "the X Factor", now wants the government to go further and let it charge the pay-TV platforms to retransmit its content. ITV Chief Executive Adam Crozier said in a statement on Monday that introducing retransmission fees would have clear benefits for British creative industries, citing a "golden age" in U.S. television funded in part by retransmission fees. "The majority of viewing on these pay-TV platforms is PSB programming yet ITV, whether as producer or broadcaster investing in creating that content, doesn’t receive any payment – despite the fact that pay-TV platforms pay commercial terms for other channels," he said. "It is in the interests of all broadcasters that we encourage the regulator and government to look again at this issue for the benefit of the industry and viewers." More than 10 million British households subscribe to BSkyB's satellite service. MAJOR PUSH? Graham McWilliam, Sky's Group Director of Corporate Affairs, said ITV wanted the very significant benefits of its PSB status, while cherry-picking from a fundamentally different U.S. market. "UK satellite viewers don't pay to receive free-to-view PSB channels and Sky doesn't pay for content that is given away for free on other platforms," he said. "If additional charges were introduced, the reality is that millions of households would end up paying for PSB channels that are supposed to be free." British public service broadcasters receive radio spectrum to make their channels universally available at no charge to the public, apart from the TV licence that funds the BBC. In return, PSBs have an obligation to provide minimum amounts of programming from various genres. Ian Whittaker, analyst at Liberum, said together with Channel 4 coming out in support of retransmission fees, and Viacom (owner of Channel 5) likely to be receptive, it was clear broadcasters were now making a major push on the issue. Citi said ITV's campaign would likely be well received by investors, while being seen as a mild negative for the UK platform companies, which also include TalkTalk and BT. "That said, we see this as largely a sentiment issue as we still have some reservations about how realistic the prospect of getting retransmission fees is," Citi said. (Editing by David Clarke)