NTC sets meet over AXN, Star contract issues with Destiny

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is meeting with officials of Destiny Cable, AXN, and Star Group to thresh out the issues involving AXN and Star’s continued refusal to renew their respective contracts with Destiny and possibly come up with a mutually acceptable settlement.

Destiny is the country’s third largest cable TV operator next only to Sky Cable and Home Cable. The former has lost a significant share of its market to its major competitors following the pullout of AXN and Star Group.

NTC commissioner Ronald Solis told The STAR yesterday that among the issues to be tackled concern the jurisdiction of the commission over foreign content providers such as AXN and Star. The latter distributes ESPN, Star Movies, Star World, and Star Sports to Philippine cable TV operators. Both AXN and Star have discontinued providing programs to Destiny citing no specific reason for the decision.

NTC earlier wrote Star and AXN asking the two content providers to start providing programs to Destiny since an NTC memorandum circular prohibits a program provider from discriminating against a particular cable TV or direct-to-home satellite TV operator.

Destiny claims that Star and AXN’s action in refusing to provide programs to the former while servicing competing cable TV operators is a clear violation of the NTC circular. The latter suspects that the two have entered into an exclusive agreement with Sky and Home which is also prohibited under NTC rules.

However, AXN and Star maintain that the NTC has no jurisdiction over a foreign content provider and the NTC circular being cited does not state clearly that the commission indeed has the power to regulate them.

Solis said that NTC wants to see to it the issue can be resolved using the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) method to try to bring the parties to arrive at a "win-win formula."

But if the ADR fails, then the commission will be forced to resolve the issue by itself and assert its jurisdiction over AXN and Star. "While they are saying that the circular is not clear on whether the NTC can have jurisdiction over foreign content providers, I do not look at it that way," he said.

He also emphasized that this particular issue challenges the NTC’s right to adjudicate on matters involving foreign companies.