 ECUADOR | INTERVIEW |
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| Jorge Schwartz: "Cable's Infrastructure will Remain the Backbone" |
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TV Cable's president spoke to ttv about the challenges that come with new platforms, the piracy issue, the future of pay TV and triple-play services.
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Jorge Schwartz, president of TV Cable in Ecuador.
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Founded in Ecuador in 1986, TV Cable is a pay TV company that offers its subscribers culture and family programming, in addition to sports, news, movies, music and kids' shows. It has a 60% market share and is present in 12 of the country's 20 main cities.
The operator's HD services continue to grow, currently offering 36 HD channels, several Premium packages, triple-play services, PPV and VOD.
Focused on its networks' digitalization and bidirectionality, the operator also continues to develop pre-pay subscription offers, so popular in Mexico, Venezuela and Chile.
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"Currently 85% of our base is digitalized and 75% has rebuilt networks suitable for triple-play services," said Jorge Schwartz, president of TV Cable in Ecuador. "We'll continue working in 2012 to reach 100% and thus provide services to all our subscribers."
According to Schwartz, digitalizing the networks has allowed the company to develop new platforms, create integrated services and, naturally, fight against piracy: "it's a serious issue; especially in regard to the satellite system sold through AzBoxes, which we estimate are present in over 35% of the market. It affects everyone: operators, programmers and governments."
In fact, the system, one of the most popular means of piracy in the region, is based on the legal void in AzBoxes' distribution which is in fact legal, as long as they don't have the software to decode the networks.
"The only way to end it is for programmers to be aware of this and being hypocrite about the whole piracy thing, allowing their networks to continue on that system," he said.
As far as the future of pay TV goes, Jorge Schwartz believes "saturation levels are being reached," while "broadband services will continue to rise." Yet, Schwartz also stated "cable's infrastructure will remain the backbone of the entire business."
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