The CC findings stem from a complaint to Ofcom over BSkyB's alleged dominance of the UK pay TV market by competitors including Virgin Media and BT. One consequence is Ofcom's decision that it should regulate the wholesale prices at which Sky Sports channels are supplied to third parties, including Virgin and BT. The CC's investigation of movies is the other legacy of the complaint and focuses on BSkyB's deals to acquire pay TV rights from Hollywood studios for its movie channels.

According to the CC and BSkyB's major rivals Virgin Media and BT, movies are a key factor in consumer subscription decisions. However, while it is difficult to measure the importance of BSkyB's premium movie channels as an incentive to subscribe to pay TV, other services like sports, HDTV, third party channels, broadband and fixed line telephony have gradually become more significant. Ofcom itself noted in its referral that the 'importance of linear movie channels appears to be gradually declining over time'.

In a line of reasoning it consistently follows when faced with submission deadlines in UK pay TV regulation, BSkyB argued that the market definition was too narrow, and that other methods of 'watching movies at home' such as DVDs and Blu-Ray should have been taken into consideration by the CC. BSkyB argues that other 'windows' used by movie studios to distribute films coincide with one another and hence act as substitutes to consumers when deciding what format to watch films on. Typically, the FSPTW lasts 15 months in comparison to the three to five years offered to secondary licences such as free-to-air services, and coincides with windows for DVD rental and purchase. BSkyB therefore stresses that the relatively short length of the FSPTW means that it has a strong incentive to use these licenses efficiently and innovatively. The CC suggested that BSkyB's incumbency advantage from its large subscriber base has led to a situation where innovation in the movies on pay TV market is limited.

BT and Virgin Media both responded favourably to the CC's research. BT stated that it has been unable to obtain supply of BSkyB's FSPTW movie services on a linear wholesale or a subscription video-on-demand basis. Virgin Media also concurred with the CC's assertions that BSkyB's sole ownership of the FSPTW rights impedes third parties' abilities to compete effectively, and confirmed that its own attempts to gain rights from the major studios were unsuccessful. As BSkyB's major rivals, the two companies would benefit from improved access to FSPTW rights. It is also possible that the CC's proposed market remedies will allow a potential entrant to access the rights, although BSkyB's main rivals argue this is economically unviable in the present situation. BT in particular highlights that besides BSkyB's dominance, this is because of the need to amass a significant subscriber base to make a sufficient return on investments in movies content. Possible entrants may include other distributors of movie content such as Lovefilm, which already has an established UK subscriber base, and the speculated entry of Netflix into the UK market in January 2011.

Whatever the outcome of these developments, the CC's provisional findings will add to the already sizeable amount of scrutiny BSkyB is receiving at the moment.