What OTT threat? We’re embracing it, say cablecos


The growing shadow that over-the-top (OTT) video distribution is casting over the pay-TV establishment is producing the first attempts to respond by Latin America's cable operators.
Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the 2011 International Conference for Cable TV and Audiovisual Channels, ended on Friday, a group of top executives from some of the region's leading MSOs analysed the phenomenon and discussed their likely next moves to deal with the changes coming their way.
Indeed, if something was clearly evident throughout the event, it was that change was inevitable. "For kids and younger generations, it is absolutely understandable that they demand content to be accessible at any time and on any device," said Eduardo Stigol, CEO of Inter, Venezuela's largest cable provider.
"Today our kids are telling us: 'I don't watch TV the way you used to, dad!' There's a new generation with different expectations."
To help address these requirements, Stigol called for a change in the way content rights are negotiated: "It is necessary that, when we sit down with the content owners, we make the studios and the production houses understand that all content distribution deals should include the rights to distribute video on all digital platforms."
Enrique Yamuni Robles, director general of Megacable Comunicaciones, Mexico's largest MSO, revealed that his company is working on a TV Everywhere offering for its subscribers.
However, he talked about the importance of getting a key technical issue right if TV Everywhere projects are to be a success. "Our content producer partners must be absolutely certain that users requesting online access to the content they are already paying for can be properly identified and authenticated," Yamuni Robles said.
He noted this is something that HBO and a slowly growing number of content owners are already doing successfully in the region.
According to Stigol, the pay-TV industry as a whole will also need to work together to develop a common interface that could be used to present online video content to viewers in a somewhat standardised way. "If we don't," he warned, "we risk causing confusion."
Carlos Moltini, general manager of Cablevisión Argentina, added: "The only way we'll be able to get to a future where all content is available anywhere, any time and on any device is by investing [in new technologies]."
Moltini went on to criticise what he said was the Argentine government's relaxed approach to the arrival of a group of OTT service providers such as Netflix and Cuevana – the latter of which he accused of fomenting piracy.
"What is the Government doing to regulate these new entrants?" Moltini asked. "Are they paying the same taxes that we do? Do they pay author rights to Sadaic (Argentine Society of Authors and Music Composers) like we do?"
Inter's Stigol had a couple of questions of his own: "Do they have the same kind infrastructure that we do? I mean, if a customer needs to contact them with a query or problem – are they equipped with a fully staffed call centre to provide all the answers?"
Asked directly by Rapid TV News Argentina about how much of a threat the changing paradigms brought about by these disruptive OTT business models posed to cable companies in the region, Stigol replied: "Today I wouldn't worry. But if we don't do anything about it, I think in a year's time we'll be worried."