SkyCable vows to fix GMA signal disruption

MANILA, Philippines - SkyCable Corp., a unit of broadcast giant ABS-CBN Corp. of the Lopez clan, has vowed to cooperate with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to resolve its difference with publicly-held GMA Network Inc. over signal disruptions.

“SkyCable, together with GMA Network and NTC, has been working hand-in-hand to explore necessary procedures to be undertaken in order to resolve the signal disruption issue at hand,” the company said in a statement.

In the meantime, SkyCable said subscribers who are experiencing the said DigiBox problem could fix this manually by rescanning their DigiBox.

“We regret this temporary inconvenience and extend our apologies for any difficulty brought about by this system upgrade,” the company said.

GMA has filed a complaint against SkyCable over the unilateral change in channel assignment for the second time in less than four months.

Butch Raquel, consultant to the chairman and chief executive officer for corporate communications, said the company filed a complaint before the NTC for the rechanneling undertaken by SkyCable last Feb.1.

“GMA Network expresses its concern as to why it gets to be affected by whatever SkyCable is doing or modifying in its system,” Raquel stressed.

Last Feb. 1, SkyCable conducted a system upgrade to enhance signal clarity for GMA from channel 12 to channel 99, Shop TV from channel 13, SKY Preview Channel from channel 21, and ABN from channel 163.

In a letter to NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, GMA vice president for legal affairs Ma. Luz Delfin asked that the regulator act on the decision of SkyCable to change channel assignments.

“In this regard, we earnestly request the Commission to implement the necessary action against SkyCable for conducting a series of activities that have resulted in disruptions that are detrimental to the interest of the viewing public paying subscribers, and GMA,” Delfin stated in the letter dated Feb. 4.

Delfin pointed out that Friday’s incident was not the first as a similar incident occurred last Sept. 23 when SkyCable transferred GMA to channel 85 from channel 12 due to an activity in preparation for additional high definition channel on their digital platform without the benefit of successful off-line pre-testing and revert option.