"I think we can give these debates if we analyze them seriously, if we understand them seriously."
"It seems to me that the media is a topic to debate today. And in Argentina we also have to expand, for example, the image distribution market, which the world has already opened to telephone companies and in this country, inexplicably, Macri kept it in favor of one. And I think that was not good. "
This is how President Alberto Fernández responded when asked if he would promote a new media law, knowing that the current one does not like it. With his statement, he made it clear that he will start the discussion: "I have already opened the discussion by saying this. I have been saying it since 2004, it is not now.""It seems to me that we have to encourage ourselves to discuss all these things. What we cannot do is make laws against someone, we can think of a law that is better, simply," he added.
As for the public media, he said he will see how to strengthen them under a logic of plurality, respect and value, because there are many localities in the country that are far from where the only thing that arrives is Public Television.
When asked about whether he is worried about what the media is entitled, the head of state said: "The headlines worry me as long as they can help confuse people."
And he reflected: "The Media Law that Cristina promoted left something good. When it was debated, it was revealed who is who, and everyone knows what they hear and knows how to sift. What we must do is guarantee the plurality of voices and demand responsibility to those who think and inform. Responsibility ".Interpretations about what he meant can be varied.
"It seems to me that, on the one hand, the president persists in his reductionist and biased perspective on the law of audiovisual communication services. I do not agree with him that it was designed against a sector. And I also do not believe that the system problem current is in the audiovisual law but in what was not done around the law, "he told iProfesional, Santiago Marino, professor at the UNQ, UBA, Usal and San Andrés.
For the investigator, what happened with the government of Mauricio Macri from now on was that "the anti-concentration of this law was broken above all. I propose this, precisely, because in his speech there is a need to pluralize the media system. attacking the current concentration levels that is not possible. "
Regarding the television market, it was already open to telephone companies during the Macri administration, although this process was not widely promoted. At the beginning of 2018, Enacom, in charge of Miguel de Godoy, authorized Telefónica and Claro to offer pay TV to Argentines.However, what was never enabled was the possibility of providing this service through satellite technology. Thus, DirecTV continued to be the only operator to provide the service in this way.
On the side of the Telecom company, it was favored since it would take Claro and Telefónica more time to enter their market through the fiber optic route and, thus, begin to compete more aggressively in that field.
To propose today that they are given that possibility sounds almost obsolete. Companies face their fiber optic deployments as it is the most efficient technology for the current moment. Already by 2018 the satellite was half old. If this chance had been enabled 10 years ago, the situation today would be different.Give me soccer
Football could be another of the topics included in that opening that Alberto Fernández raises. Having it as a content proposal went through its storms and rispideces.
However, at present, both Telefónica and Claro can offer the soccer pack as part of their convergent services offer without major inconveniences.
The situation is not so friendly for small cable operators operating in the provinces. For them, negotiating that pack is sometimes more a headache than a solution. The same as signal packets, beyond whether they are premium or not.
"Today the limitation is more because of the way in which the contents and rights are sold, because cable companies have to pay for customers that they don't have. This is what explains why companies have been slow to include open TV in their proposals. It would deserve to be reviewed, "says telecommunications expert Enrique Carrier.For the analyst, half of the homes with pay television still remain in the analog service, which is cheaper and does not qualify to add the football pack. If you want, you must go to the HD system and then buy the football package.
"If today to see it you have to have an HD subscription, that in itself is a limit. And if you are not cable there is no football. These are limiting for the competition," Carrier adds. In times of crisis, consumers seek to minimize their fixed costs. Thus, or they cancel the packs or, directly, the pay TV service.
The small cable operators were asking the signals to have smaller packages to offer cheaper alternatives. But that was not possible. Is that, whether 10 or 100 signals are included, the cost is calculated based on the number of potential customers in an area and not for those that actually have.
That was an equation that always worked in the market but that, by virtue of new consumption and demands, no longer results. Especially for those who must distribute them. The issue is not reduced to this either.A referee please
The distribution of images alluded to by Alberto Fernández is also related to the so-called must carry. That is, the obligation for TV operators to incorporate in their grid the open television signals of the cities and towns in which they provide their services.In 2018, Enacom also issued a resolution whereby holders of satellite TV service licenses would have to transmit, on a mandatory basis, the public signals of the State and those in which it had participation, such as the Canal de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, and that of the Catholic Church.
This obligation was also extended so that those open TV signals coinciding with the coverage area are incorporated. If a satellite company provides services in Cordoba or Mendoza, then it must include existing provincials.
This happened because the same provincial signals claimed that, being out of the grid of pay television (with which 77% of Argentine households access, according to Business Bureau data), they were also unable to add more publicity, main support of the media business.
But this obligation that lenders have does not have the signals. In other words, they charge pay TV or convergent service providers for including them in their grids. That is part of a negotiation between the parties.When there is no agreement between what a channel asks to be incorporated into that grid or what the distributor is willing to pay, the problems begin.
This is what happens today between Clarín and Claro: the latter is not willing to validate the amount required by the former. Although the situation has long been denounced in Enacom, the regulator does not resolve.
For Santiago Marino, in relation to the regulation of the audiovisual market offer "it would be interesting to know what your idea or project is for that purpose. I understand that it would be key to expand the regulation of the extended audiovisual space including OTT services such as Netflix, for example".
And he considered that the contribution to a national content production fund could be contemplated, in order to force them to some screen quota or interface fee for the public to access that national production that Netflix could offer.
"This would come hand in hand with an offer around the limits that Clarín imposes on Claro in relation to the audiovisual offer without Clarin's content package. It seems to me that there is part of the central and necessary to regulate in the future immediately, but it would be important to know if this is going to be a bill that works on its management or is a manifestation in an interview and nothing else, "he added.
As noted, there are limitations in the telecommunications market when it comes to content. Things do not flow naturally. Sometimes, there are usually too many stones in the road and little help to remove them from it.
Alberto Fernández proposed, with this statement, the opening of the discussion. And appealed to responsibility. That same one that ends up impacting in the access and in the cost of the TIC services on the part of the Argentineans.