“This will spur the emergence of this new combined DTT and DSL platform and allow the organisations building this platform. BT‟s own experience is that it is essential to offer must have premium content, such as sport, to attract pay TV subscribers.”

Of course, BT - which is so far Canvas’ only hardware/IPTV partner - would say that: Canvas, with its promised wealth of new content and services, is timely for BT Vision CEO Marc Watson and could prop up the telco’s offering, which has gathered 420,000 customers but will always struggle against 5.9 million premium TV customers.

Virgin and Top-Up TV, making a joint submission (pdf) to Ofcom’s third consultation, don’t make the same point about Canvas, which itself is waiting for approval from the BBC Trust after several consultations. But they do reiterate their wish that Sky Sport be made available as part of Ofcom’s wholesale must-offer (WMO) plans.

In the blue corner, Sky is is calling the idea “entirely at odds with the free and undistorted operation of the competitive process”. In its mammoth 277-page document (pdf), it condemns Ofcom’s proposal as “an extreme and unprecedented intervention” and points out that no competition law is currently being broken.

Showing just how crucial this is to Sky’s future, the company brings together another nine documents backing its argument from analysts and academics. Sky also points us towards submissions to the consultation from rights holders who also face losing revenue from lower Sky wholesale prices: the England & Wales Cricket Board, the Football Association Premier League, the Professional Golf Association and the Rugby Football Union all add their strong criticisms.