After three successful days in Buenos Aires, where representatives from most Latin American cable operators and pay-TV companies gathered, the Jornadas Internacionales came to an end, with participants showing concern about the sector's future and governments' role in it.
The event, organised by Argentina's cable association ATVC, had conferences and workshops focusing on new technologies, Latin American markets, growing strategies and investments, and regulations for convergent services in different countries.
“Cable TV has shown, one more time, that it's a key tool for the knowledge society and the broadband democratisation,” said Walter Burzaco, ATVC president. “We have shown the industry will keep developing in spite of everything.”
The new context for classical pay-TV operators was one of the most analysed and commented upon topics during the Jornadas, as the Latin American countries are showing very different ways of facing the arrival of over-the-top (OTT) and video-on-demand (VOD) operators, working via the Internet without needing to deploy their own cable infrastructure.
“The industry is changing and we need to take this as an opportunity to evolve towards customers' demands,” said Carlos Moltini, Cablevisión's CEO. “The market authorities have to change the telecom legislation in order to help the industry.”
“If the rules were the same for all the players, the small operators would be able to offer a good service in the region,” explained Jorge Di Blasi, president of Red Intercable, a network of local cable operators in Argentina.
Juan Gnius, VP of Signals Telecom Consulting, add: “DirecTV, Telmex and Telefónica concentrate the market in the region.”
