Telephone operators will be able to offer pay-TV in Brazil. The Senate on Tuesday approved a project called PLC 116 that standardizes new sector rules, allowing the entry of telephone companies in the cable TV segment. Currently, they offer pay-TV services using satellite technology (DTH) and microwave (MMDS), but they can not control cable operations.
PLC 116 also establishes quotas that obliges TVs to present national content that has been chosen by the National Cinema Agency (Ancine). Now, the bill now goes President Dilma Rousseff for final approval.
Several senators were against PLC 116, mainly because the pay-TV channels will show three-and-a-half hours of local content accumulated in the week in prime time. Ancine will define these hours of content. Others had worried that that free TV will lose advertising.
The debate over whether operators can sell pay-TV has been going on for nearly 10 years. The final project is result of intense negotiations involving pay-TV companies, carriers, broadcast television stations and content producers.
The bill also removes restrictions on foreign investment in cable TV operators. The text notes that the rule already applies to other segments of cable TV, satellite services and MMDS, which have no limitations on foreign capital.
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