ABS-CBN to elevate cable channeling issue to SC if NTC rule is unfavorable
By Zinnia B. Dela Peña
Publish Date: [Monday, June 02, 2003]
ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. said it would not hesitate to elevate its case to the Supreme Court should the National Telecommunications Commission insist that its cable television firm SkyCable Central CATV Inc. violated rules when it changed the channel assignment of GMA Network Inc. from channel 12 to channel 14.
ABS-CBN chief executive officer Eugenio "Gabby" Lopez said cable operators have their own prerogative to decide on which channel it wants to carry a particular TV broadcasting network.
"That is the key issue between the KBP (Kapisanan ng Brodkasters sa Pilipinas and the PCTA (Philippine Cable Television Association) because KBP wants those channels where they are on free TV. The PCTA, on the other hand, says it is the right of cable operators to decide what channels and where to carry it," Lopez said.
"So that is an issue that would go all the way to the Supreme Court because it’s not an issue that the PCTA would accede to because it is a critical question in terms of growth. We don’t have to ask anyone for permission," Lopez said.
Lopez has also assailed the NTC for unjustly intervening in the row between GMA and ABS-CBN or SkyCable. "Why will our marketing strategy be subject to the approval of the regulator when all along, fundamentally, the direction of the government is let the free markets operate. If the NTC wants to interfere, the least they can do is to hold a public hearing and hear the comments of the cable operators before they decide on an issue which is more significant than simply the view of one free TV operator," he said.
"In America, the cable operators reserve the right to put the channels wherever they seize it, because for a pay-TV service, where you put the channel is the most significant marketing opportunity you have," Lopez further said.
SkyCable earlier asked the NTC to reconsider its recent ruling that the company violated NTC circular no. 04-88-88 which requires cable TV operators to carry the broadcast channels on their channel of transmission (i.e.GMA 7- on channel 7).
SkyCAble said compelling cable TV operators to carry the TV networks on the same channel number at which it is transmitting would result in serious technical, financial and business repurcussions.
Doing so would require massive investment not only in the form of equipment but also manpower and other incidental expenses, which will seriously, financial and businesswise, hurt the respondent and ultimately redound to the prejudice of its subsribers. SkyCable said.
GMA-7 legal counsel Roberto Rafael Lucila of the Belo Gozon Elma Parel Asuncion & Lucila law offices, said the country’s TV network expects the NTC to implement the decision on the re-channeling case soon to comply with the agency’s rules and regulations. "There is simply no credible reason why the decision of the NTC and its rules and regulations should not be followed by the three cable companies. SkyCable and its affiliates can not just simply ignore the fact that they applied for their respective authority to operate and have operated for the past 10 years under the same rules and regulations. They must therefore respect the NTC decision," Lucila said.
Lucila said GMA-7’s complaint for unfair competition against ABS-CBN Corp. has already been served and they expect the Lopez controlled network to answer the complaint within 15 days from receipt.
He said the NTC has also issued summons to SkyCable, Philippine Home Cable Holdings, and Pilipino Cable Corp. to answer the complaint for monopoly, signal distortion and degradation, as well as unlawful cross-ownership, within the same period of 15 days. The hearing, he said, was set on July 1, 2003.
In its complaint filed with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, GMA-7 is seeking payment for damages worth about P12 million from the three cable operators as compension for "acts of unfair competition, corporate combinations and manipulations as well as unjust, oppressive, high-handed and unlawful business practices."
GMA-7 said the transfer of its signal to channel 14 from the original channel 12 in the cable firms’ system was done "without notice to the viewing public, the NTC and the plaintiff.
This rechanneling allegedly caused "disruption and confusion among the viewers of GMA-7’s TV shows and resulted in the distortion and degradation of quality.
Because of this alleged signal degradation, GMA-7 claimed that the ratings of its shows were affected as the signal were usually being done during the airing of the network’s top-rating shows.