Cablecom appeals against analogue carriage ruling

Swiss cable operator UPC Cablecom has launched an appeal against the country’s Federal Administrative Court’s decision requiring it to carry youth channel Joiz on its analogue platform.

The court’s decision upheld an earlier ruling by the Federal Office of Communication on November 10 2010. Under Swiss law, channels with particularly valuable journalistic content must be broadcast free of charge in the analogue platforms of cable operators.

UPC, which has offered the channel on its digital network, issued a statement claiming the ruling was unjust and would require it to remove a public service German-language channel from its 36-channel analogue line-up.

“Whilst UPC Cablecom has been broadcasting the channel digitally in a prominent slot since the first day it was transmitted, the largest cable network company in Switzerland is of the opinion that additional analogue broadcasting of Joiz is not justified,” the operator noted.

UPC also claimed the channel is already distributed extensively throughout the country on Swisscom’s TV platform and via online TV services Zattoo, Wilmaa and Teleboy.