Uruguay. The Uruguayan government is considering presenting to the Congress of its country a bill that would seek to discourage concentration and cross-ownership in telecommunications, directly affecting subscription television operators.
The bill, which would be an article that would be added to the audiovisual media services law, aims to prevent subscription television operators from accessing mobile phone or data businesses, the same would happen with those who today have a license for the latter services.
If this project, which is in the study stage, is approved, the direct affected would be the mobile telephone operators Movistar and Claro, which would be prevented from providing their satellite television services.
This would be a response to the request made to the government of that country by the National Association of Uruguayan Broadcasters, Andebu, through the Regulatory Unit of Communications Services, Ursec, in which it requested to take measures to prevent Claro and Movistar from entering the satellite television service.
The Andebu association argues that this can be a dangerous competition for the television industry in their country. For its part, the government has been in favor of this position.
The controversy arises at the time when the Administrative Dispute Tribunal repealed the resolution of the Ministry of Industry by which it had authorized Claro to provide the television service.
