ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Brazilian regulation of the digital audiovisual market or, more precisely, the attempts to regulate the digital audiovisual market in Brazil, with an emphasis on video-on-demand (VoD) platforms. It is a tortuous case, intertwined with the political crisis the country has suffered in recent years. It first began with the former Ministério da Cultura do Brasil (Ministry of Culture of Brazil) and the Agência Nacional do Cinema (Brazilian National Film Agency) making a proposal – with ambivalent objectives – to regulate the subscription VoD (SVoD) market, the ultimate aim of which was to regulate the distribution of audiovisual content. After a drastic political shift in 2016, the political effort to organise the digital audiovisual market became, first, dispersed and, then, discontinued, leaving the digital realm without any sort of regulation. This chapter presents an analysis of the different agents involved in the debate on regulating the digital audiovisual market, with close attention to the political context in which it is embedded. The main argument is that the country is moving from a situation in which national cultural content and policy received much consideration to one where economic interest predominates.
