Colombia. A controversy has been generated in Colombia because the two private channels of open signal, Caracol and RCN, announced their intention to charge pay television operators for the retransmission of their signals in HD.
The first action in this regard was taken by Caracol, a channel that since April 15 decided to suspend its HD signal for subscription TV operators and RCN announced the same for April 30. The pretense of the channels is that the operators pay them for each registered user, as they do with channels such as Fox, Discovery, ESPN, among others.
The response of pay-TV operators was not long in coming. Through the National Association of Public Services and Communications Companies, Andesco, they expressed their disagreement with the pretentions of the channels, indicating that operators have the legal obligation to carry the open television signal at no cost to subscribers and without consideration for private channels.
"The legal framework is clear and has been applied for more than 14 years without controversy. There are no grey areas or legal loopholes. The obligation to carry the signal open is independent of the format or technology used; it is not relevant whether the open signal is analog, digital, HD or standard," Andesco said in one of its sections.
As the parties have not been able to agree, it will be the National Television Authority, ANTV that will be in charge of defining whether the pretentions of RCN and Caracol are in accordance with the law, which would have a high cost for the operators to carry out. The Minister of ICT, Diego Molano, indicated that at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the ANTV this week the issue will be analyzed and a response will be given.
