Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Tuesday, February 19, 2019

First delivery: content business in Argentina (crisis)

Viewer becomes interactive and versatile and giving accurate answers turns to be difficult

The trend to stop hiring a traditional pay TV service –a phenomenon known as "cord cutting"- still does not have a negative impact in Argentina, although the need to cut costs obliges users to choose between streaming platforms, premium channels and the cable operator basic package. In this context, programmers and distributors redefine their models to compete for consumers' attention.

The proliferation of devices connected to the Internet enabled a new paradigm in the distribution of audiovisual content, in which traditional actors are still not clearly located. The testing of different alternatives of open and semi-closed platforms, co-production of series and films and multiple versions of the "Play" type, was a reality a year ago. Today the actors are redefined faced with a consumer that cuts value-added services to reach the end of the month and content providers, programmers and distributors are kept alert for fear of "cord cutting".

Diego Lerner, president of Disney América Latina, defined as passive the experience of consumption that is now offered for television series and films, and with insufficient responses from the industry to a viewer that demands added value. "The future of the sector depends on our understanding that technology adds value to the customer", he said. Among the alternatives handled by Disney, it is the variant of adding actors who currently are not in content platforms, such as e-commerce channels, or music.. 

Leaving behind a "passive" content consumption implies providing experiences, rather than content, said Sergio Veiga, Executive VP and General Manager of the South Region of Fox Networks Group, in dialogue with Convergencialatina. "Beyond OTTs, we must generate TV Everywhere alternatives, and learn to know the users. Programmers and distributors are bound to generate a change, in which data is a fundamental part thereof", he stressed. 

Turner General Manager for Argentina, Felipe De Stefani, agreed that the platform and technology grow in importance, leaving behind the slogan "content is king" and it is key that the actors of the ecosystem can be restructured. "Our industry grew based on linear content and now faces a new paradigm where Internet turned on the tap of content and generated a war for the attention of the user, where at the end of the day, the user ends up seeing fewer things because of the attention it directs towards websites, applications, channels", he warned.

According to De Stefani, new players grow exponentially –with platforms where the user is included as a content creator and where the offer connects with demand- and traditional content providers grow only incrementally. "The big ones get bigger, and small operators get smaller. In addition, there is an oligopoly of Facebook in advertising".

Loyalty and retention

Programmers admit that they spare no effort to retain customers in the traditional Pay-TV model. At the end of the day, marketing through the cable operator in a "revenue share" scheme is still the generator of a revenue, while costs are reduced in the calculations with the multi-platform proposals. Federico Canónigo, VP of Distribution for the Southern Cone in the area of Sales to Affiliates of Fox, reminded Convergencialatina that the costs of the industry are handled in US dollars, and in the local market AR pesos (devalued) are obtained. While with Fox Sports Premium it is not necessary to create an attraction to sell subscriptions -because one of the two providers with broadcast rights of the Football Super League (Superliga de Football)-, in the case of Fox Premium the user is "more reactive and difficult". For this last case, Fox offers different incentives and discounts through its sales team to keep a client marked by the crisis.

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