Sky could lose £150m a year from plan to relax ad limits on UK’s free-to-air TV

Ofcom reviews longstanding rules that allow pay-TV companies more ad minutes than public service rivals

The pay-TV provider Sky could lose as much as £150m a year in TV advertising revenue from proposals aimed at enabling the UK’s biggest free-to-air broadcasters to make more money and better compete with streaming services.

The broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, is reviewing historical rules that restrict the UK’s public service broadcasters (PSBs) – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – from running as many minutes of advertising on their main channels as rivals such as Sky are allowed.