The villages of Mahogany Heights, La Democracia, Cotton Tree, St. Margaret’s and Armenia are still without cable television tonight, while Dangriga Town has been forced to go to a back up system which provides 50 channels, sharply down from the 120 they used to get from CBC. And unless you’ve been under a rock somewhere, you’ll know that CBC’s service has been down since yesterday at 3:00 pm, after BTL took the cable company off its fibre optic network – which carries the signal from Hattieville westward.
The problem is Channel 7 and KREM television; Telemedia says it wants both companies to pay to be carried on its fibre network. Channel 7’s position is that there’s no way we can pay BTL to be carried on CBC’s cable service. Moreover, CBC cable is obligated to carry Channel 7 and KREM by the terms of its license which include a must-carry rule. And while that is this company’s position, Telemedia says that we want to use their fibre optic system and not pay for it, basically that Channel 7 and KREM want a free ride.
In an interview on BTL’s subsidiary Channel 5 last night, General Manager of Business Development and Corporate Communications for Telemedia Karen Bevans said that there seems to have been a re-interpretation of the must-carry rule, and went further to imply that the Belize Broadcasting Authority was compromised because two Channel 7 principals, Net Vasquez and Jules Vasquez sit on that 8 member board. In an interview today, Channel 7’s news director Jules Vasquez addressed that allegation.
Jules Vasquez, Channel 7 News Director
“Both Nestor Vasquez, the Managing Director of Tropical Vision Limited, and myself, the News Director of Channel 7, sit on the Broadcasting Authority. There is no conflict because the law, I know BTL likes to makes its own laws and its own regulations, but the law states that a broadcaster must be on the Broadcasting Authority. The Prime Minister, the Minister of Broadcasting, asked me if I would like to represent broadcaster and I did. I told everyone I did, it was all over the news.
Second, Nestor Vasquez is there because he was elected by the Cable Association. The Cable owners are a disparate group, they are PUPs, UDPs, no Ps – they voted him as President of the Cable Association and also by the law, new to BTL, the President of the Cable Association must be represented on the Board. That is the law so it is not unlawful appointment.
Thirdly, if we had any sway over the board at all, CBC’s licenses for those villages would not have been approved. I voted against it on the Broadcasting Authority as did Mr. Vasquez but they were approved. Why did I vote against it, because I told the board, and this is minuted, that any approval of CBC amounts to an approval for BTL, and I have seen the Accommodation Agreement. BTL has a license to do almost everything in this country. In my opinion it didn’t need a license to act as a covert cable operator because that’s what they are presuming to do now.
I see Miss Bevans talking about the must carry rule now and they have ensured they have complied with the must carry rule. They have nothing to do with the must carry rule, they are not a cable provider. That is the business of cable providers.
It is BTL that is trying to change the rules of the game while maximizing its profits at all turns. The situation is that they are trying to have two cakes and eat them both. When they were carry broadcasting signals of Channels 7 and 5, they are still carrying Channel 7 on their national fibre optic network, we paid them and we are still paying them. But they wanted to switch, they wanted to diversify, to move it over to cable. That’s fine but once you move over to cable then you can’t continue to tax broadcasters.
And then second it becomes so ridiculously presumptuous for them to say that they will dictate what content CBC must carry on its cable because only the Broadcasting Authority has the power to dictate the content of cable and then thirdly it is preposterous for them to think that we should pay BTL to let CBC carry us on their cable.
Beyond trying to dictate what content should be carried on cable and to have two cakes and eat them both, BTL is trying to have us, the local operators pay for the avalanche of foreign programming that is obtained on cable. Why does the must carry rule exist, it exists to try to mitigate, to try and counter that bombardment of foreign programming. It says that you must carry local channels to at least try to put in something local to expand the horizon of people who get 116 foreign channels. And BTL is trying to say no, you local channel must pay for HBO, you must pay for Showtime, you must underwrite all these things so that BTL can distribute those. But you the cable company will be penalized for carrying Channel 7 and KREM.
The point is that BTL does not want to see Channel 7 thrive and does not want to have those voices of what we considers dissent spread out across the country. That is what this is all about, it is not about must carry or that we don’t pay. It is about censorship, simple and plain. BTL does not support those voices.”
And one more point, last night Channel 5 reported that Tropical Vision Cable in Belmopan does not carry Channel 5. That is completely false, and the hundreds of subscribers to Tropical Vision Cable who watch Channel 5 News on Tropical Vision Cable surely knew it to be so. Tropical Vision Cable has carried Channel 5 on its cable in Belmopan for 10 years – not a hard thing to find out, for those interested in doing so. We must also note that BTL has boycotted KREM and Channel 7 with advertising since May of 2006, which is when the Vesting Bill which begot Telemedia came into law.
BTL wrote to Channel 7 yesterday evening inviting us to engage in a commercial relationship to use its expanded fibre optic network. This is the first such contact, while operators such as LOVE FM and Plus TV were contacted much earlier. But all those matters aside, the only people really bearing the brunt of BTL’s decision tonight are those 400 villagers along the Western Highway who only started to get cable in June, and the townspeople of Dangriga, who have gone from 120 channels to about 50. CBC Cable says it continues to explore means to distribute its signals and re-connect those communities.
