Brazil

Brazil approves the acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T

The decision comes after months of discussion at Anatel, Brazil's communication regulatory agency

Finally a decision was made. The acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T in Brazil is set and done now that Anatel, the agency that regulates communication in the country, decided to approve the deal.

The decision took longer than expected due to the current regulation that limits the acquisition of a content producer by cable TV owners in Brazil. Since AT&T is not based in the country, Anatel stated that the rule did not apply in this case – it was not simple though, the collegiate that voted on the case had a tight score: 2×1.

In that scenario, not only AT&T owns Sky, the second largest cable TV in Brazil, but also TV channels like HBO, Warner, Cartoon Network and TNT. And let’s not forget that Time Warner also has HBO Max, the recently announced streaming service that will gather all the content made by the company – although we do not have any confirmation regarding the launch of the service in Brazil, the decision might help to speed things up.

With Netflix, Amazon and Apple already active in the region and Disney preparing itself to rollout Disney+ in the coming months, the streaming, tv and communication market starts 2020 with a lot of changes and a really promising future.

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