GREEN ... there is a regulation that now prohibits the airing of advertisement on local cable channels (and) we believe that we are far past those days

CORDEL Green, head of the Broadcasting Commission, on Wednesday appeared to support government's decision to allow advertising on cable television, saying the commission was against "monopolistic market arrangements".

"There is a regulation that now prohibits the airing of advertisement on local cable channels (and) we believe that we are far past those days," Green told journalists during the Jamaica Association of Community Cable Operators (JACCO) annual general meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.

Last March, government announced that it would allow cable advertising, but said the activity was illegal until the new regulations came into effect.

The move requires an amendment to the Broadcasting and Radio Re-Diffusion Act of 1995, which prohibits cable television from carrying local advertising other than advertisements transmitted on channels carrying national broadcasts.

But while the regular television companies saw the Act as protection from the intrusion of cable, the cable operators condemned it as unfair.

Green said he was hoping for a "satisfactory resolution" on the matter.

"There are people who have product who wish to have their product exposed, who cannot appreciate why it is that there is this regulation that prohibits them from using whatever media that is available for getting out their information.

"My own view is that the satisfactory resolution of this will be an expeditious decision by the minister, one way or another," he added.

Meanwhile, Green said the six-year licences of more than half of the island's 51 cable operators had expired, and would be renewed only if the operators met their licensing obligations.

Among the things to be examined are the operators' customer service and complaints records, whether they implemented the programming code and copyright compliance.

"Under existing regulations you can run the risk of a suspension of licence and ultimately (confiscation) of licence," Green explained, adding that the "whole process involves a range of sanctions, including fines".

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