Global Destiny may not renew contract with Star TV

Global Destiny, the partnership recently created between Global Cable and Destiny Cable, is seriously considering not renewing Global’s contract with Star TV (distributors of ESPN, Star Sports, Star Movies, National Geographic Channel, and Star World) after Star announced its second round of rate increase this year.

Philip Chien, president of Global Cable which is now managing Destiny Cable under a recently signed management contract, said that following a 20-to 25- percent increase in its rates earlier this year, Star is increasing its rates again, this time by 30 percent.

Chien, also vice president of the Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA), revealed that there is now a growing move among local CATV operators to boycott the Star Group. He said that out of the 15 directors of PCTA, 10 have already joined the move, including him, PCTA president Manuel Dabao, and chairman Elpidio Paras. He doubts though whether Sky Cable and Home Cable will join in the boycott.

Star TV pulled the plug on Destiny Cable in October last year. Earlier this year, Global announced a merger with Destiny as well as the possibility that Destiny might start carrying the Star channels as part of the merger.

However, Chien revealed yesterday that with the recently announced rate increase by Star, "even if they give me, I will no longer get from them."

He also disclosed that some of the channels being distributed by Star TV, such as ESPN, may be transferred to Solar. "Other channels also offer better movies than Star Movies," he added.

Chien also announced that they have asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to give the imprimatur on the management contract between Global and Destiny. "There is no problem with NTC though. We just want it in black and white so that we can show it to those who have raised some questions about the arrangement," he said.

He explained that the management contract is only the first step leading to the eventual full merger of Global and Destiny which might take some time.