Letters | Sunday, 07 March 2010

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Proliferation of more TV stations

I would like to address some of the difficulties new and small television stations are experiencing in order to broadcast from the local networks. The procedures to obtain a TV licence have become harder, particularly after the failure of Family TV. Emerging TV stations are doomed to look for a platform that will carry them before they are even assessed by the competent authority on their financial viability as well as human and technical capacity.
The choice of TV platforms from which to broadcast is highly limited. The business is confined to the existing duopoly. Moreover the prices charged to operate from their networks are often hefty and at the networks’ mercy. The assessment made by these TV platforms to carry a TV station follows no pre-established technical criteria and is purely based on a business decision, which does not reflect the spirit of the Broadcasting Act.
Calypso Music TV and Favourite Channel are bound by ‘exclusivity’, meaning they cannot move from one TV platform to another like the bigger TV channels, which is a clear hindrance to open and fair competition. Such a move only safeguards the interest of the platforms that are denying such stations the right to choose their broadcasting network.
Besides, the Broadcasting Act under the “must carry” clause obliges the TV networks to carry each TV station licensed by the competent authority. Nevertheless such obligation was not enforced for smaller TV stations, with the result that these platforms are determining what the viewers actually see from their houses. One comes to question if the power to determine who and what to broadcast truly relies at the Authority or at the TV networks.
I wish that something would be done to ensure the proliferation of more TV stations, the protection of one’s freedom of expression through the media, the proper accountability of the decision-making bodies and a more liberalised market in the business.

Shaun Zerafa
Qormi

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