
Yesterday Ofcom revealed the outcome of its investigation into pay TV and said the wholesale cost of the Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 channels should be cut by 23.4% to £10.63.
Now a wholesale price has been set by Ofcom digital terrestrial television services such as BT Vision and Top Up TV will be more likely to offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 to their customers for the first time.
A spokesman for BT said: "We will at last be able to sell two premium sports channels. We aim to offer Sky Sports1 and 2 at lower prices than those which have been available.
"We hope to bring them to the market in time for the new Premiership football season but that will depend on Sky now complying with Ofcom's decision."
Ofcom has given BSkyB six weeks to deliver a template contract to other pay TV providers.
However, in a statement BSkyB said it intends to fight the ruling by appealing to the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of BSkyB, said: "I think it's extraordinary that Ofcom is pushing ahead with its findings without any evidence of breach of competition law, without any evidence of excess profitability or prices and without any evidence of consumer dissatisfaction."
The BT spokesman said: "Sky may appeal against this decision but Ofcom's remedy should be implemented without delay so that customers can benefit from lower prices."
Both Virgin Media and BT Vision highlighted the fact BSkyB will be able to move premium content to its two other sports channels to circumnavigate yesterday's ruling.
Neil Berkett, chief executive of Virgin Media, said: "It's disappointing that some significant loopholes remain which provide an opportunity for Sky to further undermine competition. We look forward to working with both Ofcom and Sky to ensure our customers reap the benefits of increased competition as quickly as possible."
The review also looked at access to film content. Ofcom said BSkyB is "restricting the distribution of premium movies" and there is "ineffective exploitation of subscription video-on-demand movie rights".
However, Ofcom said cannot address these concerns fully using its powers and so it is proposing to refer the market for video on demand movie rights to the Competition Commission.
The BT Spokesman said: "Ofcom should have gone much further than it did. They have dropped movie channels, which should have been included. They should have included all Sky Sports channels, not just two."