Colombia. The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic determined a finding with alleged fiscal incidence for $ 171,621 million pesos constant in 2014 as a result of the Special Action that it advanced in the National Television Authority, ANTV, regarding the size of the subscription television market in Colombia.
This sum corresponds to the fiscal impact generated by the underreporting that is deduced from the difference between the number of subscribers evidenced by the CRC in its document Audiovisual Markets in a Convergent Environment and the records of the ANTV.
The Special Action was derived from a Popular Action against the ANTV, before the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca, where the existence of underreporting of television subscribers is denounced, reflected in the difference between the DANE projections on households with access to closed television and the number of subscribers registered with the National Television Authority.
Based on the analysis of the television market developed by the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) in the document "Audiovisual Markets in a Convergent Environment", of February 2015, the CGR evidenced a measurement for the year 2014 of 8,060,825 subscribers of cable and satellite television, while in the records of the ANTV were reported 4,897,426. Therefore, an alleged underreporting of 3,163,399 is presented for the year 2014.
Between 2012 and 2014, the underreporting that emerges from the divergence in the figures of the National Television Authority and the regulatory body would generate an alleged fiscal impact of $171,621 million of constant pesos of 2014, due to the income left to be received from the ANTV, for compensation ($150,824 million) and the variable component of subscription television concessions ($20,797 million).
The resources paid by operators for concessions and compensation are mainly used to finance and sustain public television and its educational and cultural content, under the constitutional mandate to guarantee information pluralism in the country.
Difference in figures between DANE projections and ANTV records
On the other hand, when analyzing the entire market of closed television in Colombia, which includes in addition to cable and satellite subscription, community television, it is found that, according to DANE projections for 2014, this television has a size of 8,757,827 households with the aforementioned service. For its part, the ANTV has registered a total of 5,211,911 subscribers of cable, community and satellite television.
This indicates a difference between the projection of households with closed television service of DANE and subscribers registered in the ANTV, of 3,545,916.
Since 2012, the ANTV has carried out a series of audits and inspections of subscription television concessionaires, both cable and satellite, as well as community ones, which has generated sanctioning administrative actions by the Television Authority, which are currently in progress.
However, the entity has not yet imposed a penalty for infringements related to the presentation of self-assessments by subscription television operators.
A problem that requires an effective solution
The difference evidenced in relation to the number of subscription television subscribers has been presented for more than five years in the country, warned the Comptroller's Office.
The results of the DANE and the analyses of the CRC have been published, and an effective solution to the problem has not yet been given by the ANTV as the sector's surveillance body, nor have strategies and mechanisms been implemented by the regulatory body, the CRC.
Nor is there an effective management on the part of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies, in its function as a member of the National Television Board and the Communications Regulation Commission, which allows establishing the dimension of the problem and adopting measures to solve it, considering that this situation represents a market failure that affects competition and the development of the sector.
Low penetration levels in some cities
On the other hand, additional evidence of the distortion of the size of the market is the possible existence of unregistered users, which is reflected in the levels of penetration of closed, cable and satellite television in several municipalities of the country.
Indeed, the low levels of cable television penetration in cities such as Soledad (Atlántico) and Buenaventura (Valle del Cauca) stand out. Likewise, with regard to satellite subscription television, the low levels of penetration reported by ANTV in cities such as Cali, Medellín, Itagüí and Bello stand out.
Factors that may be influencing underreports
According to analyses developed by the CRC, one of the causes of underreporting corresponds to the contributory asymmetry between telecommunications services and closed television services, which may be generating the effect of underreporting both at the level of income and subscribers in closed television.
There is also evidence of the lack of convergent regulation in the telecommunications sector and subscription television, as well as television in general.
The contributory asymmetry between these two sectors, and the restriction of the affordability of closed television services, are factors that affect the unregistered access of closed television in Colombia.
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