PLDT Group downplays claims by cable TV providers

Nation Broadcasting Corp. (NBC) and 360 Media (formerly GV Broadcasting) downplayed yesterday claims made by the Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA) that 360 Media and Smart Communications have violated the law in offering their brand new digital mobile TV service, or myTV.

Ray Espinosa, director of NBC and 360 Media, told The STAR that “it is very clear even in the advertisements of myTV that the new service is being provided by 360 Media, not by Smart.”

NBC, Smart and 360 Media are all under the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group.

Espinosa noted that 360 Media and GV are one and the same company and therefore, 360 Media has the authority to offer broadcast services.

He added that the subscription agreement is between myTV subscribers and 360 Media, even as he emphasized that the partnership between 360 Media and Smart is only to provide convenience to the subscribers.

“Also, there is no law that prohibits 360 Media from partnering with Smart. After all, Smart is not providing the broadcast service. It is 360 Media or GV that is doing that.”

The PCTA has asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to stop PLDT Group from offering myTV.

In a complaint filed with the NTC, the PCTA asked the commission to permanently prohibit NBC and GV Broadcasting System, both PLDT subsidiaries, from permitting the use by Smart Communications or 360 Media of the frequencies of the broadcast frequencies of NBC and GV for the provisioning of myTV services.

In the meantime, the association of cable TV service providers called on the NTC to issue a cease-and-desist order, prohibiting Smart and 360 Media from accepting and processing applications for subscription to the myTV service offering, providing myTV services to Smart subscribers and charging fees, and advertising the service in media.

According to PCTA, Smart and 360 Media are poised to impose charges for myTV services starting Oct. 16 to the grave prejudice of the subscribing public.

The group likewise asked the commission to issue a CDO enjoining NBC and GV from allowing Smart and 360 to use the two broadcasting companies’ frequencies for the myTV service. It also sought the imposition on Smart, NBC, GV, and 360 Media of appropriate sanctions for violation of the Public Service Act, the Public Telecommunications Act, and the terms and conditions of their respective certificates of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) and provisional authorities issued by the NTC.

PCTA, in its complaint, noted that NBC and GV were granted their respective demonstration permits by the NTC, on the condition that these are for demo purposes, shall be temporary and valid only from June 12 to Sept. 11, 2007.

The group noted that following the issuance of the demo permits, Smart engaged in a massive promotional campaign advertising its myTV service offering, claiming that it is a service of 360 Media.

“But while 360 Media is the one ostensibly offering the service, it is Smart that will accept, process, and manage subscriptions, and send billings on and collect payments for such subscriptions,” PCTA stressed.

PCTA explained that the transmission of TV signals to Smart subscribers’ digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H)-capable handsets had been made possible either by the installation of certain electronic components and transmitters in Smart cell sites to enable the same to transmit digital television signals, or by the installation of separate or independent digital television transmitters capable of transmitting DVB-H format television signals that are entirely different from regular cellular telephone transmitters.

It added that Smart is using regular UHF frequencies for the transmission of DVB-H format television signals, and not GSM or cellular telephone frequencies and that Smart or 360 Media is using the DVB-H technology for the transmission and reception of myTV television content. Such digital television signals are then received by Smart subscribers who use cellular telephones capable of receiving such signals.