LA Virtual Screenings’s partner NextTV held the virtual edition of its CEOs Summit for Latin America, where it highlighted the role of OTT players and their launching strategies with María-Jesús Pérez, International Sales Director, RTVE, Guillermo Sierra, Head of Television and Digital Services, HITN, Mirta Romay, CEO & Owner, Teatrix and Sebastian Snaider, VP, Partnerships and Account Management, Starzplay.
Moderated by Alejo Smirnoff, director of Prensario Internacional, the talk had a balance and presentation of each panelist, then the talk focused on the strategies of each player, from the importance of always having curated, quality and representative content. There was also talk of generating local content for audiences.
María-Jesús Pérez, International Sales Director, RTVE had the opening word, highlighting the company’s regional position: ‘In our country we have been using our platform for a long time. Which has content on demand but also live content. Our value is in the content library that RTVE has.
The executive emphasized RTVE Play +, the international OTT platform for video on demand. ‘RTVE Play + is part of the corporation’s internationalization strategy and has the guarantee and experience of Spanish public television in the production of quality content’.
Sebastian Snaider, VP, Partnerships and Account Management, Starzplay, mentioned that the company already has a place among the greats of Latin America: ‘In 2018 we launched Starzplay, we are in more than 60 countries. We have a very precise value proposition, offering curated and premium content. Our most important markets have been Mexico and Brazil, for a year we have increased our distribution in Chile, Colombia and Argentina’.
Guillermo Sierra, Head of Television and Digital Services at HITN, highlighted Edye, the Premium OTT for children that has full distribution in the Hispanic US and in 16 Latin American markets through the pan-regional operator Claro Video with 1, 5 million users: ‘We wanted to satisfy the needs of the little ones, that’s why we developed Edge. The service was designed primarily for the United States, but was launched on Children’s Day in Mexico to great reception. Our content is curated so parents have peace of mind that their children are watching content that is right for them’.
Mirta Romay, CEO & Owner of Teatrix, highlighted the growth they had in recent times. ‘Our user base grew 5-fold. The producers wanted to bring Teatrix to the other countries. Today post-pandemic, we understand that our success was the curatorship and the audiovisual language that we imposed on our works. We understood that we are niche, that led us to strengthen ourselves, not compete with the big ones and review the expansion strategy with each of our partners. We have to work hard for a Win-Win and preserve the foundations of the business, without losing the essence.
The four executives agreed on the importance of integrating with operators in order to offer a much more attractive offer to users. However, a recurring problem in the region is that not all operators have the necessary technology and resources to do so. A common strength was that all companies are looking for a strategy where they can have the right allies, to integrate content with new partners and offer a better offer for users.
Several companies have already achieved this goal, as is the case of HITN, specifically with its Edye B2B unit, with which it is sealing agreements such as the one announced last year with the Santa Fe Shopping Center (Mexico) where it has launched a «Space Edye” or the development of digital apps that allow the integration of brands that are promoted among their users.
It is also worth remembering the agreement that RTVE has had for a few years with Amazon Prime Video. Thanks to this alliance, many series produced and broadcast by RTVE are available on Amazon Prime Video in Spain, allowing them to reach a wider audience.
