Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Group seeks a stop to myTV services
OFFICIALS of the Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA) on Monday demanded for the issuance of the cease and desist order against myTV services being offered by a telecommunications giant Smart Corp.
Alan Dungao, president of PCTA, said the continued operation of myTV is “illegal” because it violates the provisions of the telecommunication laws.
“Under the existing rules and guidelines, only cable television companies are allowed to engage in the provisioning of pay TV,” Dungao said.
He said myTV services being offered by Smart Communications, together with its partner 360 Media Inc., Nation Broadcasting Corp. (NBC) and GV Broadcasting, is
“similar to pay TV”, which constitutes a violation.
He said Smart and its partners were not allowed to offer myTV since they have not secured the necessary certificate of public convenience (CPC).
"Under present regulations, a broadcasting entity granted a certificate of public convenience or authorization to engage in the provisioning of TV broadcasting services is allocated a frequency which it them uses to broadcast TV content to all persons within the service coverage area who are minded to tune in on the services providers frequency," the official argued.
Dungao further asserted that before Smart and its partner could offer myTV services, there should be laws that would govern it.
“Rules for digital TV should be promulgated prior to the actual launch of such services. The NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) also needs to define standards by which the legal, technical and financial capabilities of prospective service providers may be determined,” he declared.
“Without such standards, the NTC will be hard-pressed in determining which of the applicants are best qualified to be awarded frequencies," he added.
PCTA lawyer Tony Parungao said the NTC should immediately act on their petition and among them is ordering Smart and its partner to terminate the services of myTV being offered to their subscribers and stop the ongoing promotion of the services to their clients.
Parungao said they have filed a complaint before the NTC last October 8 naming as respondents Smart, NBC, GV Broadcasting and 360 Media Inc., and hoping to receive the cease and desist order and hearing by early next month.
“Realistically we expect (cease and desist order) to be released in November by the second week,” Parungao said.
Last March, Smart launched myTV as value added service to their more than 27 million subscribers. The test broadcast issued by the NTC for myTV expired last October 15.
The goal of myTV is to further increase the number of Smart users and its subscribers. (MSN/Sunnex)
