Cable TV operators ask BCC to liberalize TV channels market

Moldovan cable TV operators ask the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) to demonopolize the Moldovan TV channels market, Info-Prim Neo reports. Advancing such an approach to the public authority was decided at a conference of services distributors, convened by the Employers’ Association of the Moldovan Broadcasters. According to the organizers, they want to tackle the problems dealing with the relations of the tv channels and the cable operators and news networks. According to the Employers’ Association’s chief, Vladimir Topal, the law obliges the cable operators, while working out their programming, to give priority to the local television channels, including Dixi TV and TV 7 stations. Obtaining the exclusive right to retransmit the CTC and НТВ stations, in Moldova, they do not only place Moldovan advertising on Russian channels, but also ask for payments for retransmitting in the local cable and emission networks. In addition, these stations have delegated their attributions of signing contracts with the cable operators to an intermediary company, so that, the license payment grows, making the population, especially in rural localities, suffer. The participants in the conference have qualified this situation as unfavorable to the public interest and they asked the BCC to get involved in order to better it. To their opinion, maintaining the monopoly conditions upon the Moldovan tv channels market could impel most of the cable operators to exclude certain tv stations from their offerings, and, as a result, again the public interest and the citizens, who have unrestricted access to information, are neglected.