Macau Cable TV last week announced plans to sue the government.

The company wants compensation for losses related to the activities carried out by the unlicensed public antenna companies.

The legal representatives for Macau Cable TV said the announcement last week made by six unlicensed public satellite antenna service providers that they were voluntarily suspending the broadcast of at least eight encrypted and copyright-protected TV channels was not enough.

Unlicensed public satellite antenna service providers charge a low rental fee of about MOP25 per month, to retransmit TV channels from around the region to households, using unlicensed cable networks and without authorization from the copyright holders.

These unlicensed antenna services are very popular in Macau with the majority of the population receiving TV signals in this way, a practice that has been tacitly allowed by the government.

Macau Cable TV has been the only legal concessionaire of cable television services since 1999.