Carriage disputes are probably as old as multichannel TV itself and even in this digital and online age show no sign of ending.
However, there are carriage disputes and carriage disputes. For instance, in Russia we have just seen a channel (Dohzd) shoot itself in the foot by broadcasting a controversial comment that resulted in it being withdrawn from a number of services including Tricolor TV, the country’s leading DTH platform. Not a battle of equals, one could argue, and a situation brought about by the arguably ill thought out actions of one party.
The more conventionally accepted version of a carriage dispute is when one party, be they the content provider or distributor, raises the fees they charge to a level that the other finds unacceptable.
There then follows a very public row in which both argue their case strongly to viewers and the media before they eventually reach some kind of compromise – or not, as the case may be.
Although we have recently seen examples of this in a number of CEE territories including the Baltic Republics (in that instance involving MTG-owned services), the real epicenter now seems in be Romania.
The reasons for this are unclear, but could at least have something to do with the large number of must-carry channels for cable operators. Just this week, the regulator CNA published a list, valid until January 2015, that contains no fewer than 31 private stations, not to mention the public broadcaster TVR’s channels, regional services and France’s TV5.
The big argument at the moment is between the Antena Group, one of the country’s leading commercial broadcasters, and Focus Sat, the Liberty Global-owned DTH platform. It has already resulted in the withdrawal of Antena’s channels from the platform’s line-up and at present shows no sign of ending.
There are strong feelings of déjà vu here; just over a year ago we were reporting on a similar dispute between RCS&RDS and Discovery.
Perhaps they are all an indication of the highly competitive nature of the Romanian market and how challenging it can be, even for some of the biggest players.
