BBC alters LatAm strategy
April 19, 2017
By Chris Forrester
Advanced-Television reported earlier in the year that the BBC would be withdrawing some of its channels from Latin America and altering its programming availability. The changes have now been made.
BBC Entertainment, CBeebies and BBC Earth have ceased operating in Latin America and went dark on April 13th. Some of the BBC content is already available on OTT services from Netflix, Claro Video and BLIM.
A BBC statement said: “We will soon disappear as a channel, but our incredible content and all your favourite shows will continue to be available through free-to-air television, pay TV channels and video streaming platforms in your region.”
BBC Worldwide further explained: “This decision is driven by the growing demand in the market for our shows and will allow us to deliver our Premium content to even wider audiences in the region”.
The CBeebies online app will also remain available throughout Latin America and the Hispanic market in the US. CBeebies itself will continue operating as a linear TV channel, OTT service and dedicated app in the US Hispanic market, while the BBC World News channel will remain available on pay TV services in the Latin America regions.