Bolsonaro benefits allies with law on pay TV

Candidate for reelection, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) has benefited businessmen allied with the government and evangelical leaders with the sanction of a law that freed old UHF TV channels from extinction.

The group of missionary RR Soares, from the International Church of the Grace of God, was one of the main stakeholders in the new law, which was sanctioned by the president on Thursday (22). The rule also benefits companies linked to broadcasters, such as Band.

Soares is active in the Bolsonar campaign. He and his wife even received a diplomatic passport from the government in May.

Last year, in another measure, the president favored evangelical broadcasters and supporter channels, such as Rede Brasil, owned by Marcos Tolentino. To sew up his support base in Congress, the president allowed these channels to be included in pay TV packages sold by operators.

RR Soares owns 4 of the 22 channels benefited by the sanction of the new law. They were purchased from the Abril group in 2014, and the licenses to use the frequencies expired in 2018. Frequencies are avenues in the air through which operators carry their signals.

By the new rules, it was guaranteed that old pay TV channels transmitted by UHF can be regularized as pay TV channels.

According to congressmen and technicians from the Ministry of Communications and Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency), the religious acted directly for the approval of the law.

The law was proposed by deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PSD-SP), pastor of the Assembly of God of Brás–Ministry of Madureira and who presides over the Evangelical Parliamentary Front of the Chamber. Last year, the parliamentarian participated in a motorcycle ride, on the back of President Bolsonaro.

The expectation is that the new law will provide legal certainty so that companies can now obtain new loans.

Today, about 16 groups can broadcast their programming via UHF, 25% of the time as open stations, and the rest (75%) as pay TV channels (requiring installation of decoders in homes).

These channels were obtained without bidding and free of charge during the José Sarney administration, in 1988.

Known in the industry as the “pay TV dinosaurs”, their days were numbered, according to Anatel technicians, and should have been extinct, as determined by the Conditional Access Service Law (SeAc), in force since 2011.

This law already allowed migration to the current system of regulation of pay channels. However, there was an expiration date for the use of frequencies.

Technicians from the Ministry of Communications claim that, after the expiration of the right of use, broadcasters would have to acquire new frequencies at auction. Former explorers would have to hand over the ones they explored.

For this reason, the companies asked the government and Anatel to maintain these frequencies, which had been denied.

With the law sanctioned by Bolsonaro, this restriction fell apart, paving the way for requests previously denied by Anatel to now be approved.

As long as they do not obtain authorization from the agency, broadcasters will be able to continue operating “in a precarious manner”. They may also preserve their current frequency, provided there is no technical impediment.

Also according to the agency’s technicians, if this is not feasible, they may migrate frequency, as recently happened with TV stations, which were displaced due to the implementation of 5G telephony.

Initially, the holders of the old closed TV licenses wanted to convert their licenses to open TV channels, which the pay TV law vetoed.

The law sanctioned by Bolsonaro did not give these groups full broadcasting status, but allowed these frequencies to be renewed automatically. In addition to legal security for new loans, the framework will allow them to rent their programming schedule.

In practice, this has already been happening because companies started to hold these frequencies indefinitely.

In July 2021, at an event at Palácio do Planalto, deputy Cezinha thanked the president and the Minister of Communications, Fábio Faria, for modifying the legislation in the sector, allowing religious channels and business allied to the government to be included in packages of Pay TV sold by operators.

This measure generated the possibility of additional revenue for these channels.

Evangelicals are an important base of support for Bolsonaro’s re-election. Datafolha poll released on Thursday (22) shows stability in the presidential race in the two largest religious groups. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) continues to lead with ease among Catholics, and Jair Bolsonaro, among evangelicals.

Among the evangelicals interviewed by the institute, 50% said they intended to vote for Bolsonaro, compared to 32% for Lula.

THE Sheet sought out missionary RR Soares directly and called his advisor and lawyer to comment on the matter, but did not receive a response until the publication of this report. Unsuccessfully, he also contacted deputy Cezinha de Madureira.

Businessman Marcos Tolentino, who runs Rede Brasil de Comunicação, said that, despite understanding that the old pay TVs would have to end operations, the vote was defeated. [no setor] due to “individual actions requiring renewals or indemnities for investments made in the period”.

“We hope that now, with this ten-year period, they will fulfill their role,” said Tolentino.

According to the businessman, Rede Brasil supports Bolsonaro in the same way it supported Lula “when he did good things for the country”.

Through its advisory, Anatel stated that it was not urged to comment on this matter in Congress during the course of the proposal in Congress, which has already been converted into law.

However, according to the agency, it was in favor of the sanction as it did not see any obstacle from a regulatory point of view.

Sought, the Ministry of Communications did not respond.

The old pay-TVs were created in the late 1980s by lobbying media groups, especially Abril, which was interested in getting broadcasting licenses.

Due to pressure from the industry, the government ended up creating a hybrid model of service – part of the programming (25%) could be broadcast in an open and free way, and the rest (75%) as closed and paid content.

However, this model quickly became obsolete. Many of these old concessions ended up on the companies’ list of assets, which began to sell programming space or lease them, mainly to religious groups.