EC approves video-on-demand rival to Sky

EU regulators have cleared a joint venture to provide a video-on-demand service in Britain and Ireland.

The European Commission said today the venture would add to competition by creating a rival to market leader BSkyB.

The new venture by Disney, Columbia Pictures and Britain’s ON Demand Group will be called MovieCo.

It “will give the UK cable network operators an alternative to procure video content other than BSkyB, which is currently the dominant player on this market,” the EC said.

According to the EC statement, it “will provide an open platform to which movie content providers will have access on a non-discriminatory basis, therefore enabling them to make films available by way of video-on-demand directly to customers within the two big UK cable networks Telewest and ntl".

Columbia Pictures is owned by Japanese electronics giant Sony.