Lately, I have been addicted to watching the teleserye, Imortal. However, I am not able to watch it everyday and so I search for episodes of it in the Internet. I was able to find the past episodes I missed and also those which are called webisodes. This is, of course, good news to those who are not able to watch it religiously since they can catch the episodes they missed plus some more additional episodes. However, I wonder if these webisodes and all other shows available online are still subjected to review by MTRCB.
As we all know, MTRCB reviews all television shows and motion pictures that are shown to the general public. And so, the movies and the teleseryes that we watch go through the stringent process of being reviewed by the Board Members of the MTRCB. What happens is the production company or the distributor submits a copy of the movie or television show that he wants to air or exhibit plus all other advertising materials (posters, trailers etc.), and a sworn statement declaring the exact number of prints made for the picture to be examined.[1] The decision is supposedly issued within ten (10) days from the date of receipt of the Board of the application of the movie producer or distributor. Should the movie company receive a negative review then, they will have to file for a motion for reconsideration to the Board, which of course will take up more time. I am not sure if the webisodes shown in the Internet are subjected to that kind of review. But if they are not, then I guess that gives those production companies airing their shows through the internet an unfair advantage.
The law does not provide clearly which media will be subjected to the MTRCB’s review. Or if it does, then I guess, it is outdated because it merely concentrates on old media industry such as the television industry. If the MTRCB really wants to review the contents of what the media is showing us, then maybe they need to review their rules so as to adapt them to the changing times and to cover new media such as those streamed or downloaded in the Internet. This is to make the regulatory agencies fair to all media practitioners. They should not be stuck with what the law enacted at the time when computers are not yet widely used and the Internet is unheard of. Doing so would only render their constitution nugatory, and give undue advantage to the new or emergent and unregulated media.
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