NBC leaves Costa Rica's pay-TV
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez | 11-10-2013
The US channel NBC has left Costa Rica's pay-TV platforms, the country's main operators have announced. According to Tigo, Cabletica, Telecable, Cablevision and Claro TV, the contract has been unilaterally broken, an option that was included in the contract.
According to NBC, the move is due to the misuse of the signal, which in some cases had been broadcast without the channel's authorisation.
The situation is apparently common in Costa Rica, although most of the international channels, including TVE, BCC and CNN, are still operating normally in the country. NBC's decision came into effect at the beginning of October, affecting all cable providers. The other two channels which carry the American signal – Telemundo and Universal – appear to have the necessary authorisation and so will keep broadcasting.
Andrea Amen, marketing manager at Cabletica, explained to La Nación newspaper that NBC backed its decision up with other agreements with international distributors. "The broadcasting rights of some of the productions at NBC in the US are owned by big audiovisual groups in Latin America," Amen explained.
Subscribers were surprised by the sudden announcement, as no further explanation was given by the cable operators. Some NBC shows will be still broadcast by Telemundo and Universal.