The ITV companies and Channel 4 have said that they generally support the proposals in the Department of Trade and Industry’s consultation paper on ‘The Regulation of Conditional Access Services for Digital Television’.
They do however strongly call on the Government to bring in the regulations swiftly to ensure that digital television is properly regulated from its beginning. They also express scepticism about the ‘Simulcrypt’ approach to conditional access appeals, which the government seems to prefer.
Both ITV and Channel 4 have repeatedly expressed their concern that BSkyB’s control over conditional access and subscriber management has put it in an unassailable position as the ‘gatekeeper’ in analogue pay television.
With reports of BSkyB’s preparations to launch digital satellite TV channels in 1997, ITV and Channel 4 warn that the future of digital terrestrial television could be jeopardised unless the Government acts swiftly and decisively to put the new licensing conditions into effect.
They also regret the Government’s clear support for the use of Simulcrypt, which is only now just beginning to be standardised as a system, with many essential interface issues still needing to be settled. They also ‘deplore’ the Government’s failure to support the Common Interface, the technical standard which allows open access for all encryption systems.
Barry Cox, Director of the ITV Association, said: “There are stringent rules in place to ensure competition in the terrestrial television market, but this has not been the case in the existing satellite pay TV market, which has been dominated by a single operator.” Speaking about the Government’s reluctance to require through legislation that the Common Interface be fitted to decoder boxes, Mr Cox continued: “The Government’s approach is to allow the market freedom to develop and then to regulate it. This seems unlikely to prevent the emergence of a single dominant operator who could control access to the market and inhibit competition.”
ITV: 0171 843 8000
Channel 4: 0171 396 4444
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