Satellite broadcaster BSkyB has emerged victorious from a regulatory spat with arch rival BT, and the British Twittersphere has taken notice.
BT made a formal complaint to the communications regulator Ofcom because Sky refused to carry adverts for the BT Sport campaign on Sky Sports, which BT said was in violation of broadcast advertising rules. In response, Sky branded BT “a serial complainant” and said it was disappointing it had “again gone down the regulatory road”.
On Thursday Ofcom ruled that Sky was within its right not to promote its competitor on its own sport channels, pointing out there were plenty of other places for BT to buy ad space and calling Sky’s response “proportionate”.
On Wednesday, when news broke that Ofcom was investigating the skirmish between the two telecoms giants, nearly one in 10 (9%) UK Twitter users heard about BSkyB, up from just 1% the day before. When the ruling came down in Sky’s favour the following day, 7% of the Twittersphere heard about it in their newsfeeds. Top words mentioned alongside the brand were: “bt”, “ofcom”, “ad” and”sky”.
