Vrio Corp.

Vrio Corp. (formerly DirecTV Latin America LLC; stylized as Vгio.) is an American-headquartered company that manages the commercial operations of the Latin American branch of DirecTV (mostly known as DirecTV Latin America). It produces TV content and owns several TV channels.[1][2]

As of November 2021, it is owned by Grupo Werthein from Argentina.[3] In 2025, Vrio has become part of Werthein's media and tech holding company Waiken ILW.[4]

History

In 1994, Hughes Electronics Corporation and Venezuelan media company Grupo Cisneros create a joint venture named Galaxy Latin America, a company intended to distribute DirecTV services in 27 Latin American countries, initially with an offer of 144 channels.[5] In the following years, it enters the Chilean market and then it was launched in Mexico.[6]

In 2000, Galaxy Latin America LLC was renamed as DirecTV Latin America LLC.[7] On December 19, it announced its exclusive rights for both 2002 and 2006 World Cups, valid for Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay.[8] The following year, it announced the creation of a pop-up channel to cover the World Cup in full, with interactive functions, for Chile, Colombia and Uruguay, produced by Venevision International.[9] On September 24, 2001, it launched in Uruguay.[10][11]

In late 2003, now-defunct News Corporation acquired a controlling stake of 34% in Hughes Electronics for US$6 billion, which included a portion of DirecTV Latin America.[12] As News Corp. already had similar operations across Latin America, it was announced a merge in the following year, which consisted on combining DirecTV and Sky operations in the region.[13] Sky México and Sky Brasil absorbed their DirecTV counterparts and their customers, while the Sky brand was defunct in Argentina, Chile and Colombia, as well as other countries, in favor of DirecTV.[13]

In 2005, Grupo Cisneros sold its 14% stake on DirecTV Latin America to The DirecTV Group Inc.[14] DirecTV was later exchanged for shares to Liberty Media in 2008,[15] spun-off into a separate company in 2009[16] and then bought by AT&T in 2015.[17][18]

On January 17, 2016, the Secretary of Environment of Bogotá, sanctioned DirecTV's Colombian subsidiary, Directv Colombia Ltda., with a sum of $118 million for placing advertisement without the proper permission from the city.[19] The company violated Decree 959, published in 2000, that regulates where companies can place public publicity.

On September 15, 2017, Reuters reported that AT&T, the owner of DirecTV's U.S. and Latin American divisions, had hired an advisor to consider offering DirecTV Latin America on the public stock market.[20] The principal motive was cited as the need to reduce the debt load AT&T would assume if it took over Time Warner as planned.[20] Since that date, the U.S. Dept. of Justice filed suit to block that acquisition on antitrust grounds, a trial is scheduled to start on 19 March 2018 before Judge Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and a decision is not expected before June–July. However, even if the deal is blocked, AT&T might dispose of the division as not core to its business.

The initial public offering of the new company called Vrio Corp., which would consist of the Latin America assets of DirecTV, was announced on March 7, 2018.[21] On April 19 of that same year, the IPO was cancelled hours before the new stock was to start trading.[22] The AT&T subsidiary's Vrio branding has been kept since then.

On May 19, 2020, the company ceased operations in Venezuela, due to US sanctions against pro-Maduro TV channels Globovisión and PDVSA TV in 2019. These channels require mandatory transmission imposed by the telecommunications commission of Venezuela, CONATEL, while the US sanctions simultaneously block the transmission of these channels.[23][24]

On July 21, 2021, AT&T Latin America announced that they would sell Vrio to Grupo Werthein, which will include all DirecTV operations in Latin America and SKY Brasil (while keeping the broadband operations in Colombia and their stake at Sky México).[25] The sale was completed on November 16, 2021.[3][26]

Operations by country

Channels

DGO and Sky+

DGO (previously known as DirecTV Go) and Sky+ are over-the-top video streaming services that includes both linear channels and video on demand. The service was launched in 2018 in Argentina, Chile and Colombia. In 2019, the service was expanded to Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay, then Mexico and Brazil in 2020.

DirecTV satellite subscribers have free access to the service, but Sky Mexico and Sky Brazil subscribers do not. On October 11, 2022, DirecTV Go was rebranded as DGO.[34] On December 6, 2023, DGO was rebranded as Sky+ only in Brazil.[35]

External links