Telefonica Brazil (NYSE: TEF), including its Telesp subsidiary, plans to debut its Imagenio-branded TV services throughout the country.
Although Telefonica already provides TV services to about 682,000 subscribers in Sao Paulo via Telesp, the Spanish service provider now wants to offer a new service to compete with Brazil's dominant cable operators Net Servicos, TVA and Sky.
What's helping pave the way for Telefonica Brazil to expand its pay-TV offerings is a new set of Brazilian laws that enable both local telcos and international service providers to offer TV services. In addition, the law lifts the 49 percent foreign ownership cap on cable operators.
Having the ability to offer TV services on a countrywide basis will obviously enable Telefonica Brazil to not only compete against local cable operators, but also emerging players like GVT, which launched a new satellite-based pay-TV service last week.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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