There are three companies that provide cable and satellite television in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Most offer an ample gama of channels including channels from the U.S., Spain, England, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Venezuela, Mexico and Chile, in these countries’ respective languages. In addition, you also receive all local Santa Cruz and many national Bolivian channels.

They also offer the usual U.S. movie channels such as HBO, AXN, Cinemax, the Hallmark Channel, TNT, and entertainment and educational television including the National Geographic and Discovery channels, Animal Planet, as well as sports and music channels such as Fox Sports, E! and MTV, CNN News, etc. and children’s channels including the Disney Channel, Discovery Kids, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon.

COTAS is the local phone company. It offers a single Cable Television plan which costs $22 a month. You get 88 channels including the ones listed above. In order to request connection, you must call 103 from your phone or cellular phone and request that a “promotor” (salesperson) be sent to your home or office. The operator will put in a request and the “promotor" will then call you at some point (usually within a day) to set up an appointment to visit you.

During the appointment you must sign a contract for a minimum of 7 months. COTAS will not charge the installation fee if you remain with the company for at least that amount of time. However, if you request your cable television be disconnected prior to the end of your contract, you will be charged the installation fee on your next phone bill.

If you have a phone (land line, not cellular), then to sign the contract you will have to present to the “promotor” a copy of your last electric or water bill (they use the coded information on your home’s location found on the bill to make the correct cable connection) and your ID (passport or local “carnet”).

If you don’t have a phone (like, if you only have a cellular phone or no phone at all), then you will need to pay a $50 U.S. security deposit in cash to the “promotor” at the time you sign the contract. (You will be given a receipt for this). This deposit is returned to you when you disconnect the service and again, the minimum contract is for 7 months. If you disconnect prior to this, you will lose your $50 deposit (since they cannot charge the installation fee to your phone bill because you don’t have one).

The promoter at this time (2008) is Ricardo Saldías, and his cellphone number is 709-67613 or you can reach him by dialing 103 from your phone, or calling the office at 336-0000; however, if you decide to go in person, don't go to the telephone office listed here, go to the COTAS CABLE television office which is located on Prolongación Aroma between the 1st and 2nd rings in Santa Cruz.

Once you have signed a contract, a “técnico” will call you to set up a time to come install and connect the cable TV lines. You or someone must be home for them to enter and do this. COTAS has 24-48 hours between from time you sign a contract to install your cable. The $22 monthly cost will be added on to your phone bill each month.

ITS offers 90 channels per month at a cost of $25 U.S. per month. There is no cost for installation and if you move to another home or apartment they won’t charge a fee for the change. The requirements at the time you sign a minimum 12-month contract with a promoter are a copy of your latest electric and water bills, and your I.D. (carnet or passport). Installation takes place 24-48 horas from the time you sign.

ITS unfortunately does not offer HBO, Sony Channel, WB channel and some others in English television channels that COTAS does offer, as their contract with HBO has expired and those channels are part of an entire package that come together with HBO. ITS offers emergency medical insurance and funeral insurance as added incentives for contracting their services, although I have no idea what any of that has to do with television. The promoter in charge at this time (2008) is Susana Pedriel and her cellphone number is 726-58678. You can also reach her by calling the ITS office at 347-7774.

MULTIVISIÓN offers two different cable television packages. You will also have to sign a minimum 12-month contract for each, and the requirements for signing a contract are the same (electric and water bills, plus I.D.) There is also a $10 installation charge and you must pay 3 full months in advance, regardless of the package you choose. The promoter in charge at this time (2008) is Rolando Cruz and his cellphone number is 708-85276. You can also reach him by calling the MULTIVISIÓN office at 337-2020.

If you pay your 3 months in advance you will automatically get 2 additional television channels which are Movie City and Movie Mix. If you pay 6 months in advance, you get Movie City and Movie Mix, plus you get two free months of service (including these 2 movie channels). When I asked them why they require so much payment in advance they told me they are doing this to see how people respond. It is their way to measure if people have sufficient financial resources to merit expanding to HD TV (high definition digital television), which is something they are planning for the future. If they see people are not responding well to paying 3 or 6 months in advance, this basically tells them that offering HD TV in the future will not be a sound investment for them, because it will cost quite a bit more and people will not be able to afford it.

The first package offered is their PLUS package which costs $25 a month and includes 52 international channels plus all local and some national channels. Their second package is their MULTI-FAMILIA package which costs $18 a month and includes 42 international channels plus all local and some national channels. MULTIVISIÓN offers the HBO package including several American English channels and in addition has the SAP system (which converts Spanish channels to English, where available).

PAYING YOUR BILL

Your monthly bill must be paid in full each month at the local COTAS, ITS or MULTIVISIÓN offices, depending on which you choose, or any bank or credit union. You can even pay it at some grocery stores in Santa Cruz. Your service will be cut off if you are late paying your bills more than two months in a row.

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