Brazilian DTH operator Sky Brasil has announced plans to acquire local payTV firm Acom for an undisclosed sum.
Sky Brasil claims the potential deal will see it acquire the country’s largest operator of payTV and wireless broadband services through…
Brazilian DTH operator Sky Brasil has announced plans to acquire local payTV firm Acom for an undisclosed sum.
Sky Brasil claims the potential deal will see it acquire the country’s largest operator of payTV and wireless broadband services through MMDS (multichannel multipoint distribution service) technology, which operates at 2.5 GHz.
“In order to abide by the law, Sky has communicated its Acom acquisition intention to the Brazilian antitrust agency (CADE) and to the national telecommunications agency (ANATEL -Brazilian SCC) and now awaits approval in order to finalise the deal,” the company said in a brief press release.
Sky Brasil, which is controlled by US-based satellite broadcaster DirectTV, declined to discuss further details, including a potential timeframe. A DirectTV spokesman said it is not hiring financial advisers for the negotiations.
Acom was unable to comment before the press deadline.
But the potential acquisition looks set to build on Sky Brasil’s launch last December of the region’s first 4G services based on TD-LTE technology. As demand for data-intensive applications such as video and music continues to rocket, the company said it will market its new broadband product on its own and as part of a TV services bundle.
“By offering fast, high-quality broadband service at an affordable price, we are opening up new growth opportunities in Brazil and throughout the region,” said Bruce Churchill, president of DirectTV Latin America.
Reports explain that these services were launched on 2.5GHz frequencies acquired in 2009 from another MMDS operator called ITSA.
Sky Brasil’s potential acquisition also comes in the wake of relaxed foreign ownership rules for the country’s payTV sector. Last September, the Brazilian government and Congress approved a new law that removed foreign ownership restrictions that previously applied for investments in local cable TV operators, and that limited non-Brazilian investors to a 49% voting share or less. Foreign companies are now able to fully own such companies, although they are still prohibited from participating in the production of content for local TV networks.
In related news, regulators in Chile have threatened John Malone, chairman of US cable TV group Liberty Media, with sanctions if he fails to sell his direct and indirect stakes in Direct TV’s Chilean DTH subsidiary within half a year.
Malone was fined US$3.6m last month by Chile’s antitrust tribunal, known as TDLC, for continuing to hold an undisclosed interest in DirecTV Chile, a local competitor to Liberty’s VTR Globalcom.
Reports translating TDLC’s documents detail how Malone was sued by regulators in 2008, because when VTR Globalcom merged with Metropolis Intercom in 2004, Liberty had agreed not to own stakes in other Chilean payTV firms. However, Liberty later acquired a stake in DirectTV from US media giant News Corp.
Liberty Media was unable to comment before the press deadline.
