Last November 5, 2006, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) mandated all cable operators and TV channels to fully convert their signals from analog to digital before or until December 31, 2015. This is to curb rampant signal theft which results to poorer cable reception for paying subscribers. Three years after the memorandum was passed, moves to switch to digital broadcasting are becoming more and more apparent. Skycable, for instance, requires some of its subscribers to install an apparatus called ‘Digibox’ which is able to convert digital signals to video and audio. By cutting off support for analog signals and streaming only digital signals, cable TV pirates who do not have the necessary apparatus can no longer benefit from the illegal cable connection.
However, not all cable TV providers have the vast resources to invest in the Digibox technology. The ultimatum of the NTC may result to the elimination of small key players enabling giants like Skycable to monopolize the cable TV industry. Perhaps the benefit of the NTC regulation does not measure up to the detrimental effects it might cause to the industry. Instead of imposing these regulations to the providers, why not punish the cable thefts directly? Even though Congress failed to pass the Signal Theft Bill of 2009 punishing cable pirates, the providers can still sue them directly in court on the ground of theft under the RPC. They have an arsenal of cases under their sleeves – US v. Genato, US v. Carlos, US v. Tambunting – all of which recognized intangible properties like gas and electricity as personal properties. There is no reason why cable signals should not be classified as an intangible property.
Perhaps a test case is in order.
1 comment:
what the cable companies do is target the areas where there is rampant stealing of cable ie where class c-e people live. tingnan ninyo, mas may digital box yung areas na yun. pero yung mga a-b, later na nila iintegrate since ang assumption is we get cable legally. little do they know that we have splitters for all our tv in the house para isa lang bayad sa cable ;) pero digitizing cable will be a great advantage for us. in the us, cable is used for telephone, tv and internet. if all the digital cables are laid down for this, madali na lang access ng mga tao for the cable internet and telephone as well :)
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