The company already has 400,000 customers who have their broadband service over fiber optics. How does the plan continue? Service details
09.11.2018 • 14:23hs • Towards convergence
Towards convergence
Movistar TV adds to Amazon Prime Video and Aura: how many customers does Telefónica have?
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Less than a month after launching Movistar TV in the southern area of the Federal Capital and Greater Buenos Aires, the company already has 10,000 subscribers subscribed to the pay television, broadband and telephony package on a base of 400,000 homes that they already hired. the fiber optic Internet service.
Looking ahead to next year, expectations are to win new services and new cities, which will be announced when they are enabled. The intermediate case is Mendoza, which already has high-speed broadband service, but on which it is not yet possible to offer TV due to regulatory issues.
The choice of that province to start with broadband is not casual. On the one hand, Telecom with Cablevisión / Fibertel has no presence. The pay television market is dominated by Supercanal, which is technologically far behind.
On the other hand, few companies are as resisted as Telefónica because of the irregular quality of the services that they have provided with their copper network, without forgetting the remnants of the late 1990s, when the discussions were governed by telephone rebalancing. At that time, there were increases in rates that were fought by consumer associations and then achieved the overwhelming adherence of citizens.
Beyond these particularities, the objective of the company is to make half of the current base of its Internet clients of 100 mbps or 300 mbps enthusiastic about the triple combo.
In other words, that in the coming months - end of the year and the first of summer 2019 - they will be able to seduce 200,000 subscribers with that proposal. This will be a platform on which new proposals for convergent services will be launched.
Meanwhile, and without changes for now in the investment plans, the company continues to extend fiber optic "in those areas where there is market possibility due to the conditions of competition imposed by the Government," said Pablo Armagni, director of Communication and Image of Telephone of Argentina.
This means that it will extend its network, mainly in the south of the country, or rather, from Avenida Rivadavia of the Federal Capital to Tierra del Fuego, the area that the Spanish holding company was awarded when Entel was privatized during the Carlos Menem administration.
In this area, the operator already has 1.8 million past homes with fiber optic, that is, with the possibility of becoming clients of this technology and its packaged proposals. Towards the end of the year they hope to reach two million subscribers.
The main pay TV providers in that area are Telecentro and DirecTV, as well as other small cable operators that have their coverage area protected if they are located in towns with less than 80,000 inhabitants.
To achieve the goal, they will be leveraged in their product that has a high degree of integration between air television, 90 high-definition signals and Netflix, as could be seen in a demonstration of which iProUP participated.
Premium packages and football are also included for those who decide to hire him outside of that basic combo.
"This is an offer of broadband with fiber optic technology where the television service is mounted on it, that's why it is IPTV (television by Interent protocol). And to provide this service requires good connectivity and dedicated," he said. press conference, Marcelo Mitroga, digital entertainment manager of Movistar.
The details of the service
"We stopped being the traditional telecommunications company, now we are an entertainment company, because what we offer in this proposal has to do with that," said Armagni. And that entertainment is given by television in its diversity of contents.
When the service starts, the screen is divided into three large sectors: at the top right, the main image is displayed, which is the last television channel that was viewed. Below are smaller windows, which lead to the productions of Movistar Series.
Alongside, to the left, and vertically, the recommended contents that arise based on historical consumption are located. And more to the left, the typical bar from which punctual searches can be performed, use the program recording system and apply certain configurations, where parental controls are included to prevent children from accessing content that is not suitable for their age.
The passage from one signal to another on demand is direct. Delays (delays between the start of one signal and the next) vary depending on where you are going. Changing a channel takes two seconds; while the digital service compared to the analog service is about seven seconds (in this mode, the goals are delayed), while the transition to OTT demands about 20 seconds.
When a user hires Movistar TV he will not only receive a broadband speed of 100 mbps, but also a modem, two decoders and a signal repeater for the Internet to reach every corner of the house.
This last device was added, precisely, to maintain the good quality of the Internet, especially in large homes. Because, with the exception of the fiber optic cable that reaches the home and is fixedly installed in a defined place, the entire connection of the devices is wireless.
And another technical fact not less: the executives of the company said that television does not consume bandwidth, nor does telephony. "The 100 Mbps speed is 100 Mbps," they emphasized.
What will come
In addition to capturing more customers on the areas where fiber was already deployed, the company plans to add new features, such as Amazon Prime Video. In the first semester of 2019 they could incorporate it, as they have been informing iProfesional and iProUP. And Aura, the artificial intelligence service of Telefónica, will also be included in the platform to improve the recommendations.
Emphasis will also be placed on launching at least one new program per month of Movistar Series, the evolution of Movistar Plus, the content production business of Telefónica.
"By 2019, premieres are expected to be performed simultaneously in the company's various operations around the world, in some cases there will be a small delay, but it will respond to seasonal issues, such as vacations on one side and the other." said Gustavo Castro, Head of Content at Movistar.
"An example will happen this Thursday when Arde Madrid premieres in Spain and the rest of the region," the executive completed.
The television service is also multi-screen. That is, by downloading the Movistar Play app it will be possible to access the contents on the tablet or smartphone, with a specific graphic interface for each device.
"In multiscreen you can configure up to 10 teams and see two simultaneously," said Mitroga, who stressed that it is an alternative for when customers are on vacation and want to continue using the service. In fact, it will not matter in these cases of which mobile telephony operator they are clients.
An additional spice: those who use Movistar Play will have exclusive access to eSports channels, that is, videogame competitions, the latest boom in digital entertainment.
Is it possible to see the Movistar TV service independently of its future broadband service, in a kind of OTT (services such as Netflix?
"Within the television plan is the possibility of offering Movistar TV Stand Alone (without the package). The problem does not reach even half of the 10 premium service signals, because there are difficulties to contract the contents under that format", admitted Armagni.
The situation is more complex. But in the plans it is. Its evolution will depend more on questions specific to the behavior of customers of the Argentine pay TV market than on other aspects. At least, in the short term.
The evolution is planned. Amazon Prime Video, Aura, one premiere per month. Other cities. These will be the next steps of Telefónica in its offer of packaged services.
