Cable TV and encryption

The latest buzz phrase in the TV-provider scene is: "Station X is obliged to encrypt their signal because they have the rights for the Italian territory only. Melita have acquired the rights for the Maltese territory". It started with the World Cup, then to rugby, and now to Champions League and Formula 1.

Melita are trying to give the impression that the encryption issue is something new (with Melita obliging the Italian channels to encrypt their satellite transmissions) and that they are doing us a favour by buying rights for those events.

The facts are different. Italian channels have always encrypted those programmes because their satellite signal covers all of Europe. Yet we were still able to watch them on cable simply because while Melita re-transmit those channels from satellite, they use the signal from the conventional aerial during encrypted programmes. This explains the poor picture quality in the summer months during an encrypted Formula 1 GP or MotoGp race.

The encrypted programmes are more than what Melita are leading us to believe. Champions League on Mediaset was encrypted even when PBS had the exclusive rights, like Formula One when Net TV had the rights. Italian stations encrypt some films, some sports news, programmes and games (such as national team matches), some series, cartoons and soap-operas, etc. Melita never put black screens on these programmes. One might think that by doing so, their "customers" will suffer, but long-term I am sure that if Melita blacked out all the encrypted programmes, many of those with the reception service (which Melita call terrestrial channels) will remove it.

Ironically, many reception service subscribers need it mainly for the Maltese channels (which we can't get properly in Malta) and for the Education 22 Champions League game of which Melita had a monopoly. If an aerial would still be needed to watch the encrypted events, then there are cheaper alternatives for Maltese stations.

The truth behind this "encrypted" story is that now Melita are facing competition from at least one other provider, so they are now enforcing something which they had been conveniently ignoring since day one - and buying as many exclusive rights as possible to drive out the competition.

I think that long-term Melita are biting the arm that feeds them, because if they keep buying rights for every event and putting them into one sports channel package, increasing its price, this will be too expensive for someone who isn't interested in all the sports. Why should one pay 50 per cent extra for Formula 1 when one only wants Premier League or Lm60 for an F1 season?

Legally the Italian channels are doing their part by encrypting what they can't transmit outside their territory (they are listed on teletext). Yet we still see many of them because Melita are conveniently choosing when these channels can "violate territorial transmission rights" and when not according to whether these programmes can generate revenue or not for Melita. So it would be better if Melita defined a standard stand: either all programmes transmitted by these Italian channels are allowed to pass on to our TV sets, or else all of them are blacked out.

At the end of the day I don't know who stands to lose most - subscribers or Melita - if these encryption issues were brought up with the Italian stations (maybe Melita can tell us how much they pay for the rights to re-transmit the Italian stations). It's good to remind Melita that many have not forgotten the TelePiu farce of their early days so they won't be surprised by a similar story.