The State of Pay Television in Puerto Rico: Regulation, Globalization, and Concentration, 1996-2015.

STREAMING video & television; SUBSCRIPTION television; CABLE television industry; GLOBALIZATION; TELECOMMUNICATIONS laws & regulations; CABLE television; MASS media; INVESTMENTS; TELECOMMUNICATION policy; DIRECT broadcast satellite television

The year 2016 marks twenty years since the enactment of the Federal Telecommunications Act and the Telecommunications Act of Puerto Rico, both of which defined the legal framework for telecommunications and cable television in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a non-incorporated territory of the United States. This study is based on media economics and historical methods to examine the processes of globalization and concentration in the pay television market in Puerto Rico between 1996 and 2015. The article is intended to answer the following questions: What role has regulation played in the processes of globalization and concentration in the cable television market in Puerto Rico? What is the corporate profile of the leading pay television companies? What changes did the structure of the pay television market undergo? What was the state of pay television in Puerto Rico in 2015? Drawing from the state telecommunications regulator's data, the analysis' findings show a market where globalization and concentration of ownership, as economic processes, were intertwined trends, and different types of companies (e.g., U.S.-based telecommunications companies, U.S.-based financial investments companies, transnational media companies, and transnational telecommunications companies) with different television delivery systems (e.g., cable television, satellite television, Internet protocol television, over the top television). The findings also trace the business model evolution of telecommunications and cable companies through the introduction of new services such as VoIP telephony, Internet access service, Internet protocol television; the reduction in the cable television subscriber base, and ending of local companies' participation in the cable television industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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