The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today decided to 'declare' pay television carriage services. The services are intended to be used by content providers to supply programming, including channels, on existing (analogue) pay TV cable systems.
The decision confirms the ACCC's earlier view, outlined in its draft report and issued in June 1999, to declare such a service.
"After considering responses to its draft report, the ACCC remains of the view that this declaration will promote competition for retail pay TV services, is unlikely to affect the incentives for efficient use or investment in cable facilities and is therefore in the long-term interests of consumers," ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
"Suppliers of niche and other programming, such as sport, foreign language and special interest channels will be able to gain access to customers using existing cable channels. "The ACCC was concerned that, without declaration, owners of pay television cable could block access to services which competed with their fully or partly owned retail services or channels leading to a narrower range of programming being made available to consumers.
"The ACCC also undertook a separate inquiry into whether to declare a 'technology neutral' pay TV carriage (access) service. The ACCC has decided not to declare a technology neutral pay television access service, which would have also applied to digital broadcasting over cable.
"While the ACCC notes that access to digital networks is shaping as a potentially major issue for access providers in the future, it considers it premature to declare a digital Pay TV access service at this time. The deployment of digital broadcasting technology and services is at an early stage and various reviews, including by the Productivity Commission and the Government, are currently under way which will affect the provision of digital services more generally. However, the ACCC will continue to monitor the development of digital services, including digital broadcasting services, to assess whether declaration of digital broad-band access services would promote the long term interests of consumers.
"An analogue broadcasting access service was declared in 1997. However, the new analogue declaration provides greater certainty about the rights of content providers seeking access to cable to carry their broadcasting services. The reports on the analogue and technology neutral pay TV services are available on the ACCC's Internet site.
