After Merger with Time Warner, Red Tape Delays Further AT&T Investment in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AT&T has finalized the merger of its companies with TimeWarner in the world and Brazil. But here, unlike in other countries, the company has suspended investments until the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) and The Nacional Cinema Agency (ANCINE) issue a final decision on the transaction.

“Putting more money in Brazil is not appealing for us until this is settled,” said James Meza, senior vice president of WarnerMedia, today, July 31st, during the Pay TV Forum, an event that is taking place in São Paulo.

“AT&T is interested in Brazil; we have thousands of employees; we buy a large amount of content from national producers. And waiting for a decision has made us pause,” he reinforced.

While the agencies do not finalize their decisions, the company is operating under the terms set by CADE in 2017. “Brazil is the only country with this kind of problem [prohibition of cross-ownership between programmer and distributor], despite having been approved by the competition regulator,” he said.

João Pinho, ANCINE’s executive secretary, said in his speech at the same event that the bodies are expected to settle the issue sometime this year. ANCINE is to send a report and an assessment of the merger’s regulatory impact to its board of direstors within 45 days.

HBO Max

Meza also discussed the new streaming service of the AT&T group, HBO Max. The service will be launched in March 2020 in the USA. However, there is no forecast for launching the App in other parts of the world.

“We haven’t decided to bring HBO Max to Brazil yet. We are interested in having local versions, but we haven’t decided yet. When we do, we will take into account the regulatory context,” he observed.

Strategically, the product complements traditional pay-TV, in his opinion. “We see streaming as a complement to our traditional pay-TV business. HBO Max will also be available to our distributors,” he said.