KOROR (Palau Horizon) – More than 5 years ago, Roll ‘em Productions completed the Palau Visitor’s Channel for PNCC. Since that time, PNCC and Roll ‘em Productions have had a strong business relationship which helped give birth to the first local television station, OTV.
OTV remains the only station that produces local variety shows, including The Street Lawyer, Chised, Kalebong and OTV’s Weekend News Report.
That is why it has come as such a surprise that three years since the launch and success of OTV, on February 12, 2010, PNCC Chairman of the Board, Leilani Reklai wrote a letter to OTV explaining the outcome of its “relationship.” PNCC has decided not to support local producers, local shows, and local content. To quote the letter, it said, PNCC’s is “not at this time in need [of] . . . local content.”
PNCC’s cable line-up includes international programs such as National Geographic, ESPN, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet also local programs, such as MBTV and OTV. PNCC pays in the tune of thousands of dollars a month to buy the international content that it broadcasts and PNCC in turn charges its cable subscribers a fee.
OTV and MBTV also provide content to PNCC for its cable subscribers.So how much does PNCC pay OTV or MBTV? PNCC pays nothing. In fact, both OTV and MBTV have to pay PNCC to air their local programs.
“If it sounds like discrimination against local media, that might be just what it is”, says Kassi Berg, owner and executive producer of many of OTV’s programs. Berg says it is in PNCC’s interest to encourage the development of local media, producers, camera operators, editors and all of the local talent behind and in front of the camera. But, PNCC letter takes the exact opposite position. The letter explains that “PNCC does currently and will persist in acquiring” content from “international vendors.” In other words, PNCC admits that is willing to pay for international programming, but if you are a local producer you must pay PNCC to air your content in what the letter refers to as a “PNCC Tariff.”To repeat: OTV does not give their programs to PNCC for free they actually pat PNCC to broadcast content.
PNCC letter has a clear and strong message: international programs have value, but local programs do not.
Should local programming should be treated equally with international programming?OTV asks you call PNCC and tell them that you want OTV to remain on television and that local programs and news matters to you. “The future of local television is in the hands of the people of Palau,” said Spis Gordon, the youngest owner of Roll ‘em Productions and Executive Producer of The Street Lawyer.
