The Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday (30) a bill that allows pay-TV broadcasters with UHF channel to ask for the extension of the grant if they migrate to open TV. The matter will be sent to the Senate.
Currently, these stations are classified as a telecommunications service, but they operate through a hybrid system, with an open television signal for part of the time and, for another, with an encoded signal.
According to the author of the proposal, Deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP), the service has about 25 grants and exists only in capitals, despite not being present in all of them.
“Since 2011, no authorization has been renewed, and several companies have been forced to close their activities and others will be so as the end of the validity of the authorization for the use of radiofrequency of all companies approaches”, said the deputy.
The proposal establishes that the station that migrates may continue to operate on the same frequency whenever technically possible. The project ensures the precarious operation until the approval of this authorization by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).
“The intention is that the migration to the open TV service is only authorized if the concessionaire meets all the requirements, conditions and legal and regulatory obligations applicable to broadcasting stations”, explained Madureira. “Otherwise, we would run the risk of creating incompatibilities between the new law and the other legislation that makes up the normative framework in the area of broadcasting”.
The deadline for requesting the conversion is one year, counting from the enactment of the future law. Included in the proposal are broadcasters that were already authorized to operate in 2011, when the service was regulated by Law 12,485/11. The renewal request will be conditioned to the adaptation of all the grants of the interested party and its subsidiaries, controlling companies or affiliates.
Legislation
As of 2011, with the regulation of the various types of pay-TV service (cable, satellite, antenna) by Law 12,485/11, classified as Conditional Access Service (SeAc), UHF TVAs were allowed to migrate to this conditioned service, but prohibited further renewal. The project ends the constraint.
