VTR Globalcom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

VTR Globalcom is a Chilean telecommunications company. It is the country's largest provider of broadband Internet access and holds 86% of the cable television market. It is also the second largest provider of residential telephone service.

VTR has more than 2.2 million residential subscribers, with 1.2 million digital cable TV subscribers, 300,000 Internet subscribers and 400,000 IP telephony subscribers. It is owned by the Liberty Media conglomerate.

Controversy

VTR is the only cable company in Latin America that has (completely) censored the transmission of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, which started on 10/8/2005. This angered many clients, since previously, on 7/1/2005, VTR's Marketing Vicepresident Antonio Etcheverry had assured their users that VTR "[would] not have any kind of censorship", in a press release promoting the addition of new channels. Aside from clients' complaints, a petition was (made online), but as of October 2006, there has been no response from the company. Since VTR has an almost complete monopoly of cable television in Chile, users who cannot afford Satellite TV don't have an alternative and must accept this policy.