From the Jordan Times today, “The Audio-visual Commission (AVC) on Thursday said it had requested ATV, a private television channel, not to go ahead with its scheduled transmission on Wednesday evening for several reasons.”

In sum, the reasons according to the article are:

1. ATV had not officially informed the commission of its plan to start transmission at least one week in advance.
ATV has been mass advertising the date of their transmission for weeks in advance. The whole of Jordan knew that it was supposed to start yesterday!

2. ATV needed to meet other technical requirements in order to obtain clearance from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), prior to transmission, as per the TRC Law.
Are you telling me that after all the years worth of preparing and all the money poured into campaigning, the ATV staff, who already have experience with media and the way things are done in Jordan due to Al-Ghad Newspaper, uh, forgot to complete their paperwork? What, it just slipped their minds?

3. ATV was supposed to provide the AVC with its uplink and downlink frequencies, in addition to the contract signed with the Jordan Media City.
Is that worth delaying the transmission for?

4. The RF link established between the station and the Jordan Media City has not been licensed — a requirement under the TRC Law.
In the point above, the AVC says that there already is a contract signed with the Jordan Media City…

On the ATV side of things, who also had problems with the AVC last Tuesday as they decided to suspend the channel’s test transmission, ATV Chairman Mohammad Alayyan claims that the commission demanded documents of ATV relating to technical permits and frequencies, adding that the station had supplied AVC with all the documents it requested.

In reply, the AVC says that they were only provided with the required documents only on Wednesday, August 1, adding that these “necessary documents” were now being processed.

Alright.

Bloggers on the issue:
Lina
Ahmad

Full article: (temporary link)

Several reasons behind suspension of ATV launch

AMMAN (JT) — The Audio-visual Commission (AVC) on Thursday said it had requested ATV, a private television channel, not to go ahead with its scheduled transmission on Wednesday evening for several reasons.
According to Sufian Nabulsi, director of the AVC Engineering department, one of the main reasons behind the request was that ATV had not officially informed the commission of its plan to start transmission at least one week in advance.
“In addition, ATV needed to meet other technical requirements in order to obtain clearance from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), prior to transmission, as per the TRC Law,” Nabulsi told The Jordan Times yesterday.
“ATV was supposed to provide the AVC with its uplink and downlink frequencies, in addition to the contract signed with the Jordan Media City,” he added.
Moreover, the RF link established between the station and the Jordan Media City has not been licensed — a requirement under the TRC Law, according to Nabulsi.
During a press conference on Tuesday, ATV Chairman Mohammad Alayyan had announced that the private TV station would be launched the next day, pointing out that it had completed all necessary preparations.
In a statement released late Wednesday, however, the station said it had not started broadcasting at 5:00pm as scheduled, in accordance with an AVC decision.
In the statement, ATV Managing Director Mohannad Al Khatib said “the commission had also suspended the channel’s test transmission last Tuesday,” on NILESAT 102.
“The commission demanded documents of ATV relating to technical permits and frequencies,” the statement said adding that the station had supplied AVC with all the documents it requested.
But Nabulsi said that AVC was provided with the required documents only on Wednesday, August 1, adding that these documents were now being processed.
“AVC has sent a letter to the TRC to obtain the required clearance, and provided it with the necessary documents,” Nabulsi said.

Friday-Saturday, August 3-4, 2007