Colombia. A great stir has been generated in Colombia after the decision of the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, SIC, which ordered, by judicial decision, that subscription TV operators must have authorization from RCN and Caracol to retransmit the signal of these channels. The precautionary measure was decided by the SIC at the request of the channels.
Next, the channels made public a document by which the authorization to retransmit their analogous signals was extended until December 2014. The question that remained unanswered is whether when this deadline is met they will seek to also be paid to retransmit their analog signal, as two months ago, when subscription TV operators took the high-definition signal of both channels off the air because they decided to charge for it.
Following the decision of the SIC, the National Television Authority, ANTV, asked the Superintendence to suspend the precautionary measures ordered by that entity. In addition, to transfer by competence to the Communications Regulation Commission the matters that correspond to it by virtue of its powers of law.
The substance of this legal dispute lies in the interpretation of the law. Subscription TV operators (the largest in the country are Claro, Une, Directv and Telefónica) ensure that RCN and Caracol are open-ended channels and should not charge for their retransmission, while the channels maintain that they must ensure that the signal reaches all homes, that is why they can access this signal through air antennas and high definition with digital television.
When the controversy over the HD signal suggested, the ANTV initiated a public consultation process to define what will be the policy that will be addressed to respond to this dispute, in which, obviously, in addition to being at stake the access of Colombians to television, there is a lot of money involved.
Many voices have joined this controversy. One of them is the Comptroller General, Sandra Morelli, who alerted the government so it could become a detriment to the public treasury, since public investments that seek to implement digital television would be at risk.
