ABTA: Brazilian Pay-TV Heavyweights Debate TWC-CBS Spat

SÃO PAULO: Time Warner Cable’s dispute with CBS over retrans fees was the subject of heated debate at the opening of the ABTA Expo & Congress yesterday in São Paulo, Brazil, where the heads of Globosat and Net, among others, also discussed the impact of new pay-TV legislation.

Alberto Pecegueiro, the CEO of Globosat, said that the dispute between TWC and CBS is one of the most important episodes of American cable TV in recent years. “And this dispute will have no winners."

José Felix, CEO of Net Serviços, the largest cable operator in Brazil, said that there has always been a good relationship between broadcasters and cable TV. “We would be able to sit down and settle this issue."

According to Pecegueiro, Brazil is unlikely to see a similar battle anytime in the near future. However, he does believe that “it is inevitable that free TV will eventually have the ambition to charge for content in Brazil. [Especially] after the must-carry changes introduced by Law 12,485.”

In 2011, the government passed Law 12,485 (also called SeAC Law), which regulates pay television. It imposed quotas for Brazilian content on TV programmers, and increased the number of Condecine (Contribution for the Development of the National Cinema Industry) taxpayers. More than R$600 million ($261 million) was made available to independent producers in 2012 as a result of the tax.

In general, international programmers said that Law 12,485 presented challenges but ultimately was responsible for a good and productive year. One of the challenges mentioned by the panelists was the need for a faster process to approve Brazilian productions by Ancine, the national film agency that regulates the law.

The Minister of Culture, Marta Suplicy, said that she “talks daily” with Manoel Rangel, Ancine’s chairman, about how to improve the process. According to the Minister, “Ancine will expand the scope of operations by the end of this year.”

According to Suplicy, one of the strategies behind the law is to “extend” the image of Brazil abroad. “We need more films and audiovisuals made here,” she said, to present Brazil as not only the country of soccer and carnival. Suplicy believes that cable TV will be the main driver of this effort.

"The best of Brazilian culture is, after Law 12,485, on pay TV,” said Suplicy. “We need to give access to more and more Brazilians and this law contributes to this effort,” said Rangel.

Camila Viegas-Lee is the editor of World Screen‘s Portuguese-language publication TV Brasil.