Cable operators call on two broadcasters not to ask for money for broadcasting programs

The Association of Employers of Broadcasters from Moldova calls on two broadcasters – Dixi Media and TV7 – not to ask for money for re-transmitting the programs of those two stations. At a news conference in the quarters of Info-Prim Neo News Agency, the operators said that, under the Broadcasting Code, they are obliged to retransmit the local broadcasters for free and with priority. “If these companies don’t want to allow us to re-broadcast their programs for free, we will have to remove them from our packages, but we don;t want to,” president of the association Vladimir Topal said. According to him, the association has called for the support of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council that recommended them to come to terms with those two broadcasters. Dixi Media retransmits the Russian channel STS, and Analitic Media Grup (TV7) – NTV, also from Russia. A Lawyer of Dixi Media, Tatiana Gumenai, who attended the conference, said that only the public broadcasters are obliged to give the cable operators their programs for re-transmitting them for free. “We are a commercial entity, and our company’s policy is not giving something for free,” she said. Article 29 (5) of the Broadcasting Code provides that “The distributors which re-transmit program services through telecommunication networks will include for free the program services of the public broadcasters and, if possible, those of the local broadcasters in their offers.” The Association of Moldovan Employers of Broadcasters has 40 cable operators and broadcasters that cover about 150 localities. According to the association’s president, Vladimir Topal, the association would represent about 50% of the total number of cable operators.