Audiovisual Media Regulation in the 21st Century in Argentina and Brazil

Abstract

This paper proposes a comparative study of the process that led to the enactment of the Audiovisual Communication Services Law in Argentina and Conditional Access Services Law in Brazil. The theoretical and methodological framework arises from the political science, from the article “State and State Policy in Latin America: Towards a Research Strategy” of Oscar Oszlak and Guillermo O’Donnell. The paper also takes critical contributions about communication policies from the perspective of political economy of communication.

The focus of controversy in the Brazilian legislation was the promotion of national and independent content as well as the establishment of programming and packaging quotas. In contrast, in Argentina, although programing quotas were questioned, the main conflict was the licensing and how to adapt to the market concentration limits.

The perspective of convergence that emerges in the argentine case stays in the technological level. In Brazil, the regulatory framework for subscription tv enables the convergence of providers, services and technologies unifying the regulatory framework, eliminating the existing provisions by technology.