ImprimirThe Pay-TV Law is a fundamental milestone in the regulation of mass electronic communication in Brazil, having established the removal of barriers to competition, the valuing of national culture and the beginning of a new dynamic for the production and circulation of Brazilian audiovisual content. Consequently, all segments of Brazilian audiovisual sector have grown, which enlarged the offer and the access to national content.
By opening the market to new competitors, this law increased the offer of Pay-TV service and stimulated the decrease of the final price to the subscriber, besides having set the obligation (i) to the airing of Brazilian content in channels of qualified space, and (ii) to the offer of Brazilian channels in each package available to the subscriber.
Among the main measures established by the Pay-TV Law, it is important to highlight the following:
- The creation of potential demand for national production (quota of national content per channel): the channel’s quota prescribes a minimum of three and a half hours per week of Brazilian productions to be shown in prime time by Pay-TV “channels of qualified space” – those that exhibit, in their prime time, a range of “dramaturgical” programs, such as fiction, documentaries, animation, sitcoms etc. Besides, half of these productions must be produced by independent Brazilian production companies.
- The creation of potential demand for national programming (quota of national channels per package): the programming quota means that in each three “channels of qualified space” – that is, Pay-TV channels that show dramaturgical programs in prime time – one must be a “Brazilian channel of qualified space”. The maximum programming quota is 12 Brazilian channels. Among those channels, one-third must be programmed by a Brazilian independent programmer. Moreover, among those Brazilian channels, at least two of them must show 12 hours of independent Brazilian content, 3 hours in prime time. The packages containing news channels must include another one with a different editorial line in order to maintain diversity of opinion and information.
With those measures, there has been some changes in the Brazilian audiovisual market, such as the increase of Brazilian content produced per year; the increase of Brazilian content licenses for Pay-TV; the increase in hours of Brazilian content distributed on Pay-TV; and the expansion of Brazilian independent production companies.
Source: ANCINE / Superintendência de Registro
Source: ANCINE / Superintendência de Registro.
