Price to determine Star TV’s return — Lopez group

The Lopez Group, which holds a signified interest in the merged operations of SkyCable and HomeCable, said yesterday it might consider taking back the Star TV channels for the right price.

"We will take the Star TV channels back if the price is right," said Pedro A. Chanco III, spokesperson for the Lopez Group.

"The issue is still the cost, the actual cashout on our part to be able to subscribe to Star TV Channels. We have always been ready to pay our debt on a staggered basis. There is nothing new in that," he said.

"The only common sense that is now hopefully prevailing is coming from Star TV. They have now realized that they are shortchanging their advertisers by being absent in the 60 percent of the Philippine cable TV market that is represented by SkyCable and HomeCable," Chanco said.

SkyCable senior legal counsel Gerardo H. Ramiro added, "Cable television rates are presently deregulated and thus are subject to market forces. Hence, there is really no pressure from government regulators with respect to our raising rates."

Also, cable TV subscription contracts do not specify carriage of channels because channel line-up does change for various reasons, including when cable operators fail to agree with programmers on terms of carriage; when programs are added or replaced; or when programs pull out of the market.

SkyCable and HomeCable have satisfactorily explained their position and the reason for the loss of the Star TV channels in earlier meetings at the Senate and Department of Trade and Industry.

"We also stand by our previous statements that Star TV was doubling our costs and it is not true, as they are now claiming, that their offer was for only 80 percent of the fees in our previous contracts. They have definitely not lowered the rates in previous negotiations to offset the devaluation of the peso, as they are now claiming, or we wouldn’t have this problem," Chanco said.

SkyCable and HomeCable have started to develop a sports channel to fill the void left by ESPN, the only channel they wanted to carry, to begin with. "All the other Star TV channels being forced on us have more popular counterparts already carried by SkyCable and HomeCable," Chanco said.