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DirecTV was the country's most popular television service,
providing a range of foreign channels as alternatives to the
country's beleaguered local television industry that has been
battered by a hyperinflationary economic crisis.
U.S. sanctions meant to force President Nicolas Maduro from
office prohibit companies from contracting with state agencies,
but local Venezuelan laws require subscription services to carry
channels run by the government.
"Because it is impossible for AT&T's DIRECTV unit to comply with
the legal requirements of both countries, AT&T was forced to
close its pay TV operations in Venezuela," the company said in a
statement.
Venezuela's information ministry did not immediately reply to a
request for comment.
Some users reported seeing their screens go blank, while others
said they continued to receive foreign channels but no local
ones. It was not immediately evident how long it would take for
the closure to take effect.
DirecTV has for years been a mainstay of poor neighborhoods in
Venezuela, where the company's antennas were often visible on
the zinc roofs of low-income cinder-block houses.
"I don't like these Venezuelan channels, it's all politics,"
said Aura Leon, a homemaker in Catia, a working class area of
Caracas. "I called my son ... and he told me what was happening,
that DirecTV wasn't going to exist anymore, and I was in shock."
(Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru, Efrain Otero and Brian
Ellsworth in Caracas; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Matthew Lewis)
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