RCS abusively withdrew from its DTH platfom the television channels of Intact Media Group

26/04/2012

The TV Division of Intact Media Group expresses its disagreement with the commercial practices of RCS-RDS. The phone number where people can talk about their reception problems 0214091791. The cable company has decided, without previously informing their partners or subscribers, to remove from satellite platform stations Antena 1 and Antena 3, starting at 00, 20th of April.

Intact was discussing the distribution of its channels in the Digi network since March, 2012. RCS refused to reach an agreement with the media group, stating that the channels were declared free to air. “The must carry” feature is considered only for the cable network. According to art.82 line 1 from The Audiovisual Lay and art.13 line 3 from The CNA Decision no 72/2012, the must carry status is not applied on satellite broadcasting, the retransmission in this case is made on a commercial agreement between the broadcasters and the distributors. The cable company proves therefore that they don’t know the law of audiovisual, asking Intact Media Group to offer free content, even though the law regulates the satellite broadcasting. It is bad faith in the RCS –RDS case towards Intact and its subscribers, especially given the fact that international channels are broadcasted with considerable budgets, while their audience is significantly smaller and has a lower national relevance than in the case of Intact.

Intact Media Group reaches today over 10 million Romanians, having a strong portfolio with landmarks brands in the Romanian television, print, radio, online and production among which Antena 1, Antena 3, Jurnalul Nationa, Radio ZU or gsp.ro.