MaltaMedia.com

Talks on access to football have stalled due to Melita’s refusal to discuss infrastructure sharing, GO said in a statement. Both parties had met in reaction to calls from Parliament to resolve the issue of Maltese TV viewers having to subscribe to both competing services, thus incurring a double expense, to watch the most popular football content on TV.

GO said that as requested by the Social Affairs Committee on Tuesday, representatives of TV providers GO and Melita met on Thursday to explore if there is common ground to pursue the possibility that both organisations discuss constructively how both organisations can extend access to premium content to each other and share network infrastructure.

“Regretfully GO would like to state that during this meeting, Melita continued to insist on the position Melita adopted during the Social Affairs Committee meeting on Tuesday, that is, not to include access to infrastructure as part of the discussions of giving access to third party TV providers to premium TV content.

“The Social Affairs Committee specifically asked the TV providers to consider initiating discussions that cover both content and infrastructure access.

“GO has acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights over the English Premier League and Italian Serie A starting from the next football season which kicks off in August. GO would like to make it clear that any discussions on the matter of giving any third-party access to premium content, including all sports content, are subject to the original terms of the bidding process and the contractual arrangements entered into with the international rights-holders.

“GO pursued such content at a significant cost through a competitive bidding process, aimed at gaining a competitive position that mitigates channel capacity restrictions resulting from the number of frequencies assigned to GO by the authorities. Melita is not faced with similar channel capacity restrictions and therefore, the granting of access to premium content to third parties in isolation of the wider context, would lead to GO losing on the value of the considerable investment it made in the Premier League and Serie A. Discussions limited solely to giving any third-party access to such content would reinforce Melita’s current hold on the TV market and significantly limit GO’s ability to compete in the premium TV market. Such discussions go against the spirit of fostering competition and long term sustained consumer welfare.

“GO reiterates its position that eventual discussions must respect the underlying appeal of the Social Affairs Committee that there should be a fair level playing field in the interest of consumers through discussions on content as well as infrastructure access.

“GO remains available to resume discussions should Melita rethink its position and agrees to discussions whose ultimate objective is to ensure a fair level playing field in the TV market in the interest of consumers,” the statement concluded.

In a counterstatement, Melita accused Go of using delaying tactics to stall constructive discussions on the sharing of sports channels among pay-TV platforms.

Melita said that GO’s attempts to delay and complicate discussions on the broadcasting of Serie A, Premier League, UEFA Champions League and other sports was extremely harmful and dangerous for football fans, consumers and Maltese families.

Melita said that by using delaying tactics to stall constructive discussions on the sharing of sports channels amongst pay-TV platforms, Go was only reinforcing its belief that consumers in Malta and Gozo had to pay in the region of €60 per month to watch Serie A, Premier League and UEFA Champions League.

In a further counterstatement, GO said that Melita’s statement in reply to GO’s earlier statement is a clear confirmation of how Melita does not want to abide by the request of the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee to evaluate the possibility that both organisations discuss constructively how they can extend access to premium content to each other and share network infrastructure, so as to ensure a fair level playing field in the market and in the interest of customers.

GO invites the members of the public to hear the sitting of the Social Affairs Committee held on Tuesday 22 June 2010, in which it is clear that the committee and MP David Agius state clearly that discussions should cover both granting access of premium content and sharing of network infrastructure - http://www.parlament.org.mt/filebank/audio/Social%20Affairs%20Committee%20S-077%2022-06-2010.mp3

Melita’s clear statement that it does not want to include infrastructure sharing goes against the spirit of open discussion as asked by the Social Affairs Committee. Moreover, Melita’s assertions confirm Melita’s true intentions which are those of regaining access to premium content, namely English Premier League and Italian Serie A, which it lost following a competitive bidding process in autumn 2009.

Melita is after gaining a competitive advantage by not opening discussions on infrastructure sharing. Melita is historically known for not wanting to share and open up its cable network infrastructure. It has challenged regulations and took the authorities to court on the matter so as to preserve its financial interests. It has consistently refused granting any other provider access to its network. On the contrary, GO’s fixed line infrastructure has always been open to third party operators.

Until the day GO acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights over the English Premier League and Italian Serie A at a significantly high cost, Melita had a monopoly over such content and never shared this content with other local tv providers, in benefit of consumers. Such a monopoly was challenged when GO acquired this content.

GO never received any formal proposal on the matter of collaboration in this area, and even so, the solution informally communicated by Melita last autumn would have meant that the customer would still require two services from two different service providers. Furthermore, the so-called ‘detailed financial proposal’ to which Melita is referring is a mere paragraph in a letter sent by Melita to GO this week indicating an unrealistic value to sports content. The offer received from Melita this week continues to reinforce the view that Melita is after gaining access to this content on the cheap following its failure to win the bidding process.

Melita’s statements on providing premium content, including sports, at affordable prices cannot be taken seriously given the fact that during its monopoly in terms of football content, it increased its prices for Melita Sports on several occasions. Within this context, and in line with Melita’s position to discuss separately and not as part of these discussions the sharing of movies and the facilitating of the process through which customers may switch from one operator to another, one seriously questions Melita’s statement that it has its customers’ interests at heart. GO is in favour of fostering competition and long term sustained consumer welfare.

GO reiterates its position that eventual discussions must respect the underlying appeal of the Social Affairs Committee that there should be a fair level playing field in the interest of consumers through discussions on content as well as infrastructure access.

GO reiterates also that it remains available to resume discussions should Melita rethink its position and agrees to discussions whose ultimate objective is to ensure a fair level playing field in the TV market in the interest of consumers.