Telefónica affirms that Osiptel distorts competition from cable television service nndc | ECONOMY

The Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications (Osiptel) designated Telefónica del Peru as an important supplier in the wholesale pay TV market, with which it must resell its television services to other suppliers in the market.

According to the company, this decision “generates a clear impact on free competition and market performance, since it regulates a single company and does not take into account the impact of piracy or the competitive impact of streaming (or OTT) services, such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney +, among others”.

The sale of TV services would also affect the copyrights of national and international content programmers since they offer their productions exclusively and with precise clauses that prohibit the resale of their works, in consideration of Telefónica.

“The obligation to resell content reaches producers who are obviously not telecommunications operators whose rights would be affected and with a clear economic impact”Said Ana Claudia Quintanilla, regulatory manager of the Spanish company.

The firm also questioned that Osiptel’s resolution does not incorporate the impact of piracy into the market assessment, given that illegal connections exceed the supply of formal providers in some regions.

In Peru there are 3.5 million cable connections, of which only 1.95 million connections were reported by Osiptel, so the remaining 1.55 million (44% of the market) could be considered pirates in the Peruvian market, according to data in the last National Household Survey (Enaho) cited by Telefónica.

“Instead of seeking to correct the unfair competition of those who steal the signal or do not comply with reporting their pay TV connections, the regulator establishes obligations to only one company of the 680 that officially exist in the market, without taking into account the large number of clandestine connections that exist and that violate copyright and a healthy competitive dynamic“Quintanilla added.

Regarding streaming services, the company pointed out that Osiptel “used information from two years ago without taking into account the dynamics that is taking place in the market”.

“The Peruvian pay TV market is in full transformation and faces a serious threat derived from piracy. Instead of making decisions that generate more burdens on formal operators, there is an urgent need for a single State policy to combat this illegal activity that affects consumers and competition.“Concluded Quintanilla.