Picture by Jacira Monteiro

Mr. Antonio Silva Aguiar CEO and CFO of Macau Cable TV

The company uses the latest digital technology to transmit TV signals. The television signals are digitally processed and encoded in MPEG-2 (Moving Picture Experts Group) format. Over 60 international and local channels are provided on a digital Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) and Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) platform. MMDS frequencies allow Macau Cable TV to provide precise, clear, wide-ranging, signal coverage protected from interference from other users and regardless of weather conditions.

Mr. António Aguiar, CEO of MCTV, shared with UMac Bridges that cable TV was a worldwide phenomenon and Macao could not stay behind. The Macao Special Administrative Region is facing an important change in the world scene: as an international city it’s also important to follow the world latest developments. He believes that Cable TV will open many other possibilities and will extend Macao people’s vision.

At this moment, MCTV provides its viewers with about 61 channels from different parts of the world. The channel offers information, entertainment, music, education, sports, fashion, technology, and movies channels. The main languages are Cantonese and Mandarin but there are also Portuguese, German and English.

However, almost 3 years after their official opening the results are not so positive. One of the threats posed to the station is piracy. The cable signals were stolen and decrypted for broadcast services available for unauthorised buildings. Mr. Aguiar expressed that the smaller number of 12,000 subscribers are a result of this piracy problem. “Many households are receiving free signals” he said. In detriment of this situation, the CEO began their battle against these irregularities: “As strategy we are now taking an ‘aggressive’ campaign to provide the general public with more information about our services.” He said. “Besides that, we are also seeking for legal aids,” he added.

On the other hand, tariff and instalment fee charged by MCTV is another barrier. Mr. Cheong Lam, owner of a shop and local resident, showed no interest to install Cable TV inside his apartment. He said, “I think it is too expensive.” “Only the initial charges, the decoder’s deposit plus the installation fee, cost me around 1,100 patacas and the monthly charge cost me about another 300 patacas,” he added.

Herman Ho, a computer technician in a local company, said he used to be an MCTV subscriber but he decided to terminate his subscription because he thought it was expensive and he seldom watched it.

“I often come home late at night,” Herman said, “and sometimes I have extra work to do and have few time to watch TV.” He revealed, “I was delighted with Cable TV services but due to my work and lack of time I found it is worthless to pay for something that I seldom watch.”

Alberto Silva, a journalist, has different ideas: “I think Cable TV came to open new horizons to the population of Macao,” he said, “in this instance, pushing the Special Administrative Region closest to the world and to the news.”

However, the MCTV CEO argued that Macau people had to acknowledge all the investment that the company made. “People might not know but Macao enjoys the lowest cable television price in the world”, Mr. Aguiar commented. In response to their perceived problem, MCTV now offers a “mini-package”, a service scheme at a lower price to every blocks of building in Macao.

Chung Lam, a dressmaker, said that the package offered by “public antenna companies” to her building fully satisfied her needs. “I think I have enough channels,” she said, “besides I’m always watching Hong Kong channels, for example ATV Home and TVB Jade, even though I have channels from Taiwan and Mainland China.” She commented, “I do not know about this cable TV services and channels but I’m already satisfiedwith those two channels.”

MCTV continued promotions of their services and tried to win more subscribers from local residents.

Macau Cable TV, Limited has a total investment of $450 million patacas and the main shareholders are Portugal Telecom, TDM-Teledifusão de Macau, S.A., Banco Nacional Ultramarino and Ng Fuk Holding Group. The MCTV has a 15-year exclusive license of operation in 1999 granted by Macao Government.