Since a few weeks ago, there had been rumors regarding the agreement between the Government and the Association of Road Touring Drivers, which administers local motor racing categories, but it was made official last February 17 with the execution of the contract by the Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou; the Chief of Staff Juan Manuel Abal Medina and the Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo.

Coverage will include TV Pública (Channel 7), its relay station network and public channels gathered by the Federal Public TV Council and added to the Digital Terrestrial Television System. In the past, races could be tuned in free-to-air TV through Channel 13 (Clarín group) in the Capital City and Great Buenos Aires, and in the interior of the country through the cable channel TyC Sports.

At present, under the name of “Motor Racing for Everyone”, Channel 7 will be in charge of broadcasting Route Touring races, as well as the following categories: RT Track, RT Mouras and National Tourism. Carburando had already expressed the termination of the contract happened “untimely” and that there was no previous notice. Likewise, it was stated that there were no reasons for a “unilateral rupture” of the agreement after two televising decades.

The first step taken by the Argentine Government in the sport world happened in 2009 when it took charge of the broadcasting of the Soccer League Premier Division National Tournament, after the Argentine Soccer Association breached its agreement with TSC, the company made up by Clarín Group and Torneos y Competencias.

According to what Net has disclosed through a press release, to such ends, 40 HD cameras and 6 3D cameras have been deployed. The first 3D experience took place during the Carnival 2010 with Sony as partner, but at that moment, its broadcasting happened exclusively in Rio de Janeiro. In 2011, the proposal was extended at a national level, in those areas where Net has coverage. The operator informed that Net’s HD STBs are prepared to receive 3D channels. However, users need to have a suitable TV set and glasses.

According to Rede Globo New Media Director José Dias, 3D productions require new techniques and investments due to the fact that its image generation structure is completely independent from the standard generation. “It is a challenge that enriches the way people attends this kind of events”, he stated. In Latin America, important operators already rely on 3D-suitable networks, such as Cablevisión from Argentina, VTR from Chile and Movistar TV from Perú, which actually relies on a 3D channel in its channel listing.

According to what the company has disclosed through a press release, by means of this agreement, Media Networks Latin America will be able to launch a new wholesale DTH service with a SD and HD international-regional combined channel offer. Additionally, the AMC-4 is located 67º West and will enable MNLA “to meet DTH demand in Central America and the Caribbean, as well as other future-growth markets, with its existing ground infrastructure, including its teleport in Lima, Peru”.

“Our long-term agreement with SES represents a strategic partnership aimed at meeting the increasing demand from our customers, the existing and new pay-TV operators in the region, and will allow us to continue offering a growing lineup of compelling content”, stated Media Networks CTO Pedro Planas.

The company provides several Latin American operators -Oi, CTBC and Sercomtel (to be launched in 2012) from Brazil, CNT from Ecuador and Comteco from Bolivia, among others, with its wholesale DTH platform. Entel Chile also holds an agreement with Media Networks, though the telephone company has not disclosed its plans for the television market yet. MNLA is a unit that belongs to Telefónica Digital.

“HBO has to come and carry out a technical verification”, that’s why “the exact launching date will be subject to the time such trials take up”, Amarilla explained to Radio Cáritas’ La Brújula program. The triple play package will include free and unlimited local calls among Copaco’s telephones; Internet at a 640 kbps speed during the day – with 1 mega increase at night – and IPTV that will initially include a 53-channel basic channel listing. As part of its promotion, the company will not charge installation fees.

IPTV channel listing will rely on “Pay-TV classical content providers”. But unlike other systems, the service will offer “an interactivity that users will have with their TV sets”, and where they “will have true programming control”, Amarilla stated. In addition to lineal channels, Copaco’s IPTV service will offer a VOD catalog that will include free movies and last releases that will be offered for rent at about USD 3.

The executive explained that, in Asunción and Great Asunción, the network was rearranged so that all users can receive IPTV, since the service requires great bandwidth in the network access. In the interior of the country, “we will render the service in a round 1-kilometer range from the station”, stated the executive, who also pointed out that network readjusting works in such region of the country will start in the second semester of the year.

Jenji Kohan, creator of the series “Weeds”- broadcasted in Latin America by Moviecity -, will be in charge of this new initiative. The series will be based on the memories of Piper Kerman’s, a communications executive who served her sentence in a maximum security prison for women for charges related with money and drug traffic.

The first original series released by the OTT was “Lilyhammer”, which has been made available on February 6 for its operations in Latin America, Unites States and Canada. The company’s strategy was to disclose the eight chapters that make up the first season on such day. Likewise, the release of “House of Cards”, whose executive producer is David Fincher and main character is the Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, is expected to take place by 2012.

The OTT will also rely exclusively on “Arrested Development”, a series of three seasons broadcasted by Fox but later cancelled by the American chain in 2006 despite its highly positive critics. Therefore, seven years later, Netflix will have new episodes of the TV show since it generates great expectations among its followers.

Ted Sarandos, Netflix Content Director, stated that the company will rely on a total of five original productions by 2013.

The company has stated that the channel is already present in Argentina, Aruba, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. Penthouse was released in Latin America last November 1 and is commercialized under multiple hiring models: monthly subscription, PPV and VOD. Under the latter, 10 HD releases are also offered.

According to Esteban Borrás, Playboy TV Commercial Director for Mexico and Central America, “the addition of Penthouse operators’ adult packages with variety”. The executive also pointed out that “transactional modality performance has gone far beyond expectations, by showing a solid growth month after month and with over a 25% VOD sales concentrated in HD titles”.

Moreover, another Claxson’s portfolio channel, Playboy HD, has already been made available for more than half million digital subscribers in the region, and it is the only adult channel in the Latin American market in such technology. As already disclosed in advance by NexTV Latam, Claxson is planning to launch its TV Everywhere broadband platform in 2012. The company’s portfolio includes Playboy TV, Penthouse, Venus, Private, Sextreme, Hot Shots and ForMan.

The new site is already online thus disclosing some of the titles included in the offer. The material is classified in sections, such as: Action, Animation, Music and Romance. There are also sections for independent movies, “art” and “cult”, though, at present, it does not rely on any movie. Manfredi pointed out that one of this platform features is that in each locality where Wiltel is present local content will be available. Users will have access from any point of the country and it will not be necessary to be a client of the telephone company.

The new proposal – which utilizes the platform provided by Qubit Digital- will compete with Argentine incumbent telephone companies’ video streaming services: Telefónica’s On Video and Telecom’s Arnet Play; as well as Netflix. “As it has been happening over the last years, Wiltel has been applying a strategy that turns it into the main communications operator from the interior of the country and with 100% national capital”, Manfredi stated. Wiltel started operating in June 2003 in the city of Rafaela.

Although in its total subscriber number, the company reports Sky Mexico’s (Televisa and DirecTV Group) data, in the rest of DTVLA’s balance sheet, such operator’s figures are not included. Therefore, in the fourth quarter, the company added 590.000 net subscribers; whereas, in 2011 as a whole, such figure amounted to 2.06 million clients. In turn, subscriber gross additions accounted for 965.000 users over such quarter and 3.51 million users annually. In 2011, “gross additions were mainly high due to the greater demand recorded in Brazil, especially in medium segments, as well as the increase of new activations in Argentina”, the company stated.

In 4Q11, DTVLA’s incomes recorded a 33% increase up to USD 1.37 billion. In 2011 as a whole, a 42% growth was recorded thus reaching USD 5.1 billion, mainly as a result of strong subscriber growth rates. DirecTV Latin America owns the 93% of Sky Brazil, the 41% of Sky Mexico and the 100% of DirecTV PanAmericana, which covers Argentina, the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Uruguay.

The company took advantage of Saint Valentine’s Day – February 14 – to launch this initiative officially, though its programming had already been made public at Natpe 2012, held last January. “We have identified a market niche and we have designed a new 24-hour channel”, MGM Networks Latin America President Melvin Perez said about the channel. For the first phase of the channel creation, the company invested about USD 1.5 million in original productions and exclusive content programming.

The channel’s programming offers six thematic blocks: Look, Space, Flavor, being and the so-called Ella weekend entertainment block. According to what MGM has informed, contents are based on different Latin American contexts with the purpose of being a channel of “universal appeal for Spanish-speaking women, regardless of their native country”. To such ends, the company turned to the results yielded by the qualitative research work carried out by Horowitz Group in different Hispanic markets, in the main cities of the United States in 3Q11.

In turn, the company has also informed that another TC Televisión production, “Corazón Apasionado”, broadcasted at the 8:00 p.m. prime time, remains strong with up to 16 rating points, and is fighting for the first place. “Natalia del Mar” is broadcasted at 01:30 p.m.; whereas “El Árbol de Gabriel” starts at 02:30 p.m.

Apart from succeeding in Ecuador, “Natalia del Mar” is broadcasted successfully in the United States, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Venezuela, where it holds leadership with more than seven months in terms of both market share and rating at its timetable by Venevision. “El Árbol de Gabriel” is also a popular soap opera in Dominican Republic and Venezuela, according to what the company has informed.

“The success of our soap operas in Ecuador, as in an endless number of international markets, strengthens our commitment to being leaders in the distribution of this competitive soap opera genre”, stated Manuel Pérez, Venevision International VP and CFO. Venevision International distributes TV programming in more than 104 countries in more than 20 languages, representing Venevision Productions’ products -the biggest Spanish independent programming producing company in the United States- and the channel Venevision from Venezuela, in addition to other independent producers’ catalogs.