‘Combat theft of cable TV signals’

Cable television is almost certainly headed for a decline if the government agencies tasked to monitor and prevent rampant piracy among cable operators fail to implement the rules and regulations on copyright violations prevalent in the industry.

The Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA), the umbrella organization of more than 300 CATV operators nationwide, aired this admonition to the concerned government agencies such as the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

J. Manuel Dabao, PCTA president, said, "We’re calling on these government agencies to stop CATV piracy, which is called ‘signal theft.’ Otherwise, the practice of stealing and distributing stolen programs will be detrimental in the long run to the entire industry."

Signal theft enables its proponents to effectively bypass the required service fee, which, as a rule, all cable operators have to pay the programmers.

The result is that legitimate operators are the only ones paying the programmers for the programs that they carry in their cable systems, while the rest do not pay a single centavo at all.

Subscribers of cable operators using this unauthorized means of transmission will naturally benefit by enjoying most of the popular cable channels at a much lower monthly service fee.

This, at the expense of legitimate operators who have to bear the burden of expensive programs and proprietary reception equipment.

Unless the concerned government agencies and the programmers undertake effective measures to stop this practice, the growth of the cable industry, which is vital to the Philippines’ advancement in information technology, broadband and convergent technologies will be hindered, Dabao said.

"Where there’s piracy, there can be no progress, especially in the CATV industry. Programmers, and any business for that matter, work in environments of trust, ethics and mutual benefit," Dabao said.

"Without these factors, investor confidence and relationships will be severely damaged. Frankly, no one would be willing to do business in the country anymore," he added.