DIRECTV has voluntarily removed from its line-up a number of major United States television network channels it did not have permission to broadcast and is making moves to have its competitors do likewise.
In a recent telephone interview from Trinidad, general manager Bernard Pantin said the cable and satellite TV provider had logged concerns with the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) concerning Columbus Communications, which operates as Flow in the Eastern Caribbean, even before its merger with Cable & Wireless.
“We think we’ve been the leaders in terms of respecting intellectual property since inception. We have had the traditional US networks for a couple of years now – ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX [but] one year ago we had taken off CBS because we exhausted all efforts to legitimately acquire the rights to broadcast it and so we decided the right thing to do was take it off,” he said.
Please read the full story in today’s Weekend Nation, or in the eNATION edition.
