Beyond Cable mulls legal options against GMA 7

Beyond Cable Holdings Inc. said the other day it is presently studying its legal options to seek redress against alleged baseless accusations being hurled by GMA Network Inc.

GMA Network has accused Beyond Cable of deliberately distorting the signal reception of the country’s second biggest television station and that it has been operating as a monopoly.

Organized by the Lopez-owned Sky Cable and PLDT’s Home Cable to consolidate their interests and assets. Beyond Cable is owned 66.67 percent by Sky and 33.33 percent by Home.

Specifically, Beyond Cable was organized to consolidate shareholder interests in Central CATV Inc. (SKYCable), Philippine HomeCable Holdings Inc. (HomeCable) and 51 percent of Pilipino Cable Corp. (PCC).

According to company general counsel and spokesperson Gerardo Ramiro, Beyond Cable operates in a very competitive environment.

"There is no foundation for GMA 7’s claims of monopoly by Beyond Cable of the Philippine cable television market. Off-air TV still accounts for more viewers among Metro Manila households. We cannot be considered as a monopoly since even on a consolidated basis we only account for about 10 percent of TV homes in Metro Manila and an even smaller five- percent nationwide," he said.

Ramiro emphasized that GMA 7 should not resort to baseless accusations against the cable companies. "We do not tamper with the signals of the off-air stations as we have always treated them fairly but without sacrificing our business and customers," he stressed.

He also debunked claims of signal distortion earlier made by GMA 7 against PCC.

GMA7 submitted to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) video recordings of its shows allegedly recorded from PCC’s transmission. It later accused PCC of being part of a larger monopoly that changed the cable channel assignment of GMA 7 from channel 12 to channel 14, supposedly resulting in a dip GMA 7 ratings in February 2003.

GMA 7’s video recording was taken from its own Marilao, Bulacan facility in December 2002, way before the change in cable channel assignments, Ramiro said. In addition, he said that field tests undertaken by the PCC engineering group in March 2003 showed that the "signal levels of GMA 7 are within technical standards set for cable television operators."

"In other words, there was no signal distortion, either deliberate as insinuated by GMA 7 or as a result of any channel changes.

ABS-CBN, ABC 5, NBC 4, RPN 9 and IBC 13 all moved to higher channel assignments and none of them complained. RPN 9 was formerly in the channel 14 slot and it never complained of signal distortions. Further, we gave our legitimate subscribers sufficient notice of the changes. We therefore reiterate that there is nothing wrong with the cable signal, but there is no deliberate attempt to distort any off-air TV signal, and that the channel assignments were done in accordance with NTC regulations. But that as it may, we are presently studying our legal options to seek redress against these baseless accusations" said Ramiro.