YOU ARE AT:AmericasNew bill allows telephone operators to offer pay-TV

New bill allows telephone operators to offer pay-TV

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.

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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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ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, Americasrprescott@rcrwireless.com Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.