The Television Association of Programmers is an industry trade group representing 7 companies which distribute more than 70 pay television networks throughout Latin America.
While the multichannel programming community continues to face a variety of challenges in Latin America, TAP has made significant progress in its mandate to improve the regulatory environment addressing our industry, fighting piracy, coordinating subscriber audits and promoting pay TV throughout the region. Below is a sampling of some of TAP's objectives and accomplishments through June 2010.
TAP ACHIEVES IMPORTANT VICTORY AGAINST COMPULSORY LICENSE IN THE BAHAMAS
In late 2009, TAP achieved a
resounding victory against the compulsory license issue, after over a decade of
repeated attempts to resolve the issue.TAP’s multi-pronged approach including extensive lobbying of the US
government, including numerous filings with the USTR, FCC, TPSC and CBERA
committees to press our concerns about the Bahamian government’s repeated
violation of intellectual property rights.In mid 2009, a stakeholders meeting was held in
Nassau, Bahamas on August 5 to discuss the compulsory license issue.
During this meeting, the USTR issued a clear statement that unless the
compulsory license on pay TV was repealed, that Bahamas would be facing some
serious consequences, including the possible loss of trade benefits under the
Caribbean Basin Initiative, possible restatement to the USTR special 301
Watchlist, and the loss of US support for the Bahamas pending accession to the
World Trade Organization.
During this meeting, TAP and its members were able to present our
side of the story directly to the Bahamian government, and as a result of these
discussions, the Bahamas finally ratified the 2004 amendments to the Bahamian Copyright Act on
September 16, 2009 removing encrypted pay TV signals from the compulsory license.
COLOMBIA: TAP STRENGHTENS POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT
In Colombia,TAP has
continued to cultivate a strong and positive relationship with the Colombian
government, and has received endorsement of our pan regional guidelines from
the Ministry of Communications.
During the recent Andicom telecommunications conference in late
2009, TAP received extensive endorsement from the Minister of Communications,
who is a big supporter of the initiative.During the visit TAP signed a memo of cooperation with
the Minister of Communications, and TAP held a joint press conference with the
Minister to announce the guidelines, noting that the Colombian government
wholeheartedly supported and applauded our effort.
TAP was also invited to participate in two top level events: a two
day conference in December 2009 on the issues affecting the audiovisual
industry; and a "Rueda de Negocios e Inversion para el Sector
Audiovisual" which took place on January 2010 in Bogota, and was
attended by President Uribe.Once
again, this type of unprecedented access is a direct result of our positive
relations with the Colombia government.
TAP TO LAUNCH PAN REGIONAL VOLUNTARY PARENTAL GUIDELINES
In conjunction with an agreement with the RTC in Mexico, TAP member companies have worked to finalize the
voluntary parental guidelines, and will be rolling out the project in
2010 in Mexico, Colombia, and panregionally. This effort represents an important collaboration between our industry and regulatory agencies, who fully support our self-regulating system.
ANTI-PIRACY UPDATE
In Brazil, the most recent Anti-Piracy actions involved identifying
websites that broadcast illegal content from pay TV channels.The ABPTA located and identified those
sites and notified the site owners to discontinue this illegal practice. Over
10 sites were identified in the first effort.We had great success in this action: several sites have
discontinued the unlawful online broadcasting; others have responded by
apologizing and withdrawing the content links, etc. The next step for those sites that have not responded or have kept
the illegal content on their sites will be lawsuits combined with a daily
penalty until the broadcast link comes off line, without prejudice to the
damages
Another measure to combat piracy was to approach the FNCP (National
Forum for Combating Piracy and Illegal Actions), which is an association that
brings together representatives from the various sectors to fight piracy and
copyright violations. The ABPTA and TAP have taken part in all the FNCP seminars
and activities related to anti-piracy awareness, including participating in a
seminar in the 2009 ABTA conference on the issue of controlling digital piracy.
In Mexico,TAP has continued to work with local cable operators to
legalize pirate systems throughout northern Mexico and the Riviera Maya.
IMPORTANT REGULATORY INITIATIVES
Legislation is constantly being proposed throughout the region that would have a detrimental affect on the pay TV industry. Below is a sampling of some of the legislative initiatives TAP is currently addressing:
BRAZIL • PL 29 currently progressing through the Brazilian Congress
ARGENTINA • The New Media Law currently suspended, pending consideration by the Argentine Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will be reviewing the outstanding injunctions, and the case is expected to be decided in approximately 2 months. If the injunctions are overturned, it is expected that AFSCA will move quickly to issue the implementing regulations and implement the law. We will continue our close contact with AFSCA during this process.
COLOMBIA • Acuerdo 004 is in effect, which calls for total ban of alcohol and tobacco advertising
WASHINGTON, D.C. In Washington, D.C TAP has continued to work closely with the USTR and the State Department on
numerous commercial issues related to the region.
VENEZUELA • The “Social Responsibility Law” is in effect, which totally prohibits the airing of alcohol advertising on pay television effective May 24, 2005. Alcohol advertising placement (i.e. banners) can be included in live sporting events, although direct advertisement (commercials) is still prohibited
