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Thursday, October 06, 2005
Cable TV pirates cause local industry $70M loss
MANILA - Pirate cable television operators in the Philippines cost the local industry an estimated $70 million last year, the regional cable and satellite association said last Tuesday.
“The level of piracy in the Philippines is going up and not going down,” John Medeiros vice president of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) said during a telephone press conference in Manila.
According to data compiled by CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, piracy in Asia cost the cable and satellite industry $970 million last year compared with $874 million in 2003.
“No industry can afford to see this type of leakage year after year. It is not only lost revenue for the industry but lost revenue for governments as well,” said Casbaa chief executive Simon Twiston Davies.
Four illegal cable and satellite operators were discovered in a raid last month.
But Tony Selda, president of the Philippine Cable Television Association, had told reporters that three of the four operators were already back in business.
He said a bill is pending in Congress, seeking to tighten the pay television business in the Philippines, where there are some 800 legitimate cable and satellite operators.
Selda said there were no accurate figures as to how many illegal operators there are in the country but his association estimates it could be between 100 and 200.
He said last year there were 880,000 legitimate subscribers in the Philippines compared with 650,000 subscribers to pirated channels.
“This year we expect it to be roughly one to one (legitimate to illegitimate) subscribers,” he said.
Casbaa is an industry association representing 110 Asia-based corporations serving an audience of three billion people. (AFP)
(October 6, 2005 issue)
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