Colombia: Antitrust dispute may cause World Cup programming blackout

Confusion surrounding Colombian antitrust regulators’ ruling about World Cup broadcasting is threatening a total blackout of the esteemed soccer event’s programming in the nation, according to reports.

Competition regulator SIC issued a ruling last week that ordered operators to secure permission from broadcasters to carry World Cup signals. The ruling has reportedly lead broadcasters to require fees from operators for use of those signals; broadcasters are also refusing to allow free access to those signals until later this year.

It’s caused much confusion among the nation’s top pay-TV operators, America Movil, Telefonia and UNE EPM Telecomunicaciones, which are currently scrambling to determine whether they need to remove the World Cup’s broadcasters from their lineup.

The dispute is complicating an existing disagreement between cable companies and broadcasters, reports say, surrounding the 15-year-old rules that pay-TV operators have to retransmit RCN Television and Caracol TV signals. But those broadcasters now want a fee.

”For us pay-TV operators, the authorization from Caracol and RCN the antitrust regulator is referring to goes against the legal regimen for TV that’s been standing for 15 years,” the operators wrote in a joint statement, which was signed by UNE, America Movil, Telefonica and DirecTV.

The nation’s National Television Authority has reportedly requested time to examine how to implement the SIC’s ruling on the matter.

Full content: Businessweek

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