NBC could be removed from cable line-ups if rights not secured by April 30

The Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TATT) says lo­cal ca­ble providers must se­cure the nec­es­sary in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights to con­tin­ue broad­cast­ing US free-to-air chan­nels, warn­ing that NBC could be re­moved from line-ups if the dead­line is not met.

In a me­dia re­lease, the Au­thor­i­ty said providers who fail to ob­tain the re­quired rights for NBC by April 30, 2026 will no longer be al­lowed to car­ry the sta­tion.

The move fol­lows the re­moval of FOX from lo­cal ca­ble line-ups on De­cem­ber 30, 2025, af­ter providers did not se­cure the nec­es­sary broad­cast rights.

TATT said the re­quire­ment forms part of ef­forts to en­sure com­pli­ance with in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty laws and pro­tect Trinidad and To­ba­go’s trade re­la­tions and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships.

A phased sched­ule has been out­lined for oth­er US free-to-air chan­nels. Providers must se­cure rights for ABC by Au­gust 31, 2026 and for CBS by De­cem­ber 30, 2026.

The Au­thor­i­ty said it has been work­ing since 2015 with ca­ble providers, in­ter­na­tion­al stake­hold­ers and US broad­cast­ers to ob­tain the nec­es­sary per­mis­sions, but au­tho­ri­sa­tion to broad­cast the chan­nels has not yet been se­cured.

It added that broad­cast­ing these sta­tions with­out the re­quired ap­proval breach­es in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty laws.

TATT said it will con­tin­ue work­ing with the In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty Of­fice of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism, the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs and lo­cal providers to en­sure the re­quired rights are ob­tained.