Local TV channel fighting for access to Cable TV

The Chisinau-based DTV television channel has repeatedly asked the “Sun TV” cable provider to include the channel in its package. The cable provider is administrated by the Joint Moldovan-American Company “Sun Communications”. DTV Director Ion Terguta told Info-Prim Neo that the negotiations with the administration of Sun TV started in December 2005. The administration of the station submitted a new request to conclude a contract with the cable operator and started a campaign on collecting audience’s support on the website www.dtv.md, he said. Terguta says that the first DTV’s request was rejected. The operator grounded its decision on an opinion poll among customers. The operator refused to show the results of the poll. Ion Terguta says in his letter he has a series of reasons for which Sun TV should be interested in broadcasting the TV channel. The Audiovisual Coordinating Council plays a special role in this situation as it should promote Moldovan channels over the foreign ones. According to the cited source, the Council must compel cable operators to broadcast the programmes of the TV stations residing in the same community or settlement, a principle which is observed in many European countries. Serghei Lavriniuc, Sun TV programme director told Info-Prim Neo that the company has no technical possibilities at present to include the TV station in the list of channels provided to its customers. DTV is a TV channel based exclusively on own production, with a daily broadcasting volume of 4 hours, from 8.00 to 12.00.