The company promises a more agile and innovative service than Cablevisión and integrates the Netflix offer. It will have signals in HD and premium content
22.10.2018 • 16:10hs • Convergence
Convergence
Key day for telco sector: Telefónica launches Movistar TV in Argentina
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Today is a key day for the Argentine telecommunications sector: on Monday, the market launch of Movistar TV, its paid television service, became official.
In this way, Telefónica plans to fight the holding "Cablevisión-Telecom" in the pay television segment, the most lucrative for the "merged" firm. The company had been "threatening" with the launch of this product for some time, but only in the last few days confirmed its release to the market.
The service will be available in a first stage in the city of Buenos Aires, where Telefónica has already installed its fiber optic cable that covers 1.5 million customers. The idea is to expand coverage to the interior of the country in line with the investment plan of the company.In this way, the Spanish capital holding company takes advantage of the claims that the National Communications Agency (Enacom) put into effect last January and that enables pay TV service to both Claro and Telefónica.How does it workMovistar TV will be launched with a package of 120 channels at a price similar to Cablevisión's analog subscription. The decoder will work with Wi-Fi but without altering the bandwidth of the customers' Internet service.
In this case, the customers of Movistar Fibra of 50 MB will access the duplication of that speed with the hiring of Movistar TV.
As a differential, they assure that 85 of these channels will have HD quality and that the interface to search for programs will incorporate the Netflix offer, which can be accessed from channel 333. It will also have exclusive materials generated by the content development area. the firm owns in Madrid.
It is also possible to "rent" premieres by paying a "PIN" to be debited from the service bill. Likewise, there is a catalog of some 700 films that can be enjoyed at no cost
In addition, the service can be accessed from other devices besides the TV: from a cell phone or tablet with iOS or Android or from any Internet browser through play.movistar.com.ar.Government criticismAlthough Movistar has been fighting a tough battle with the government for the rules that were adopted to deepen the convergence, its executives know that they should stop being considered as a company that only offers telephony and cable services.
"We are angry with the government because competition defense policies only protect the main competitor and allow it to have greater benefits than us, but even so, we will continue to invest and launch new services such as Movistar TV," explained sources from the company in the 54th IDEA Colloquium.
In the event, the executives of the firm affirmed that their difference is based on the functionalities of the remote control and a more agile and fast zapping. Therefore they target two types of customers: those who seek to zap and the "aggiornados", who prefer a mix between live programs and video on demand.
