Digital CATV & DTH

Visiontel, new DTH from Chile to Latin America

A new DTH service with 70 TV channels, called Visiontel, is emerging in Chile. It is currently in trial stage. The launch would be expected for the coming weeks or months, before 2009 end, although there is no certain date. The head of the project is Konrad Burchadt, who was the brain of the international expansion of Entel Chile during the 1990s, and then was Vice-President of VTR MSO in 2006. The DVB-S2 platform integrator would be Argentine company Network Broadcast.

The first stage of the project will be focused in Southern Cone countries (Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay). They are planning a second stage expansion to all Latin America. Most of the management team worked with Burchadt in Entel Chile (Luis Ahumada, Rafael Cristi and Francisco Ubilla). But Visiontel also includes Marcelo Salinas, who was in charge of installations in DTH operator Zap TV (now Telmex TV), the first Chilean competitor against DirecTV. Erika Tapia, former VTR Telefónica and Fernando Pavez, who commanded the satellite division of Chilean international carrier Entel from 1974 until 2006, are both part of the team. 

Visiontel will be the fourth DTH operator in Chile, following DirecTV, Telmex and Telefonica. The chilean Pay-TV market reached 1.5 million subscribers by 2008 end, and DTH had 40 % of market share. NexTV Latam's forecast says that half of pay-TV household will be reached by satellite between 2010 and 2011. Chile will be the first key Latin America market where DTH will surpass cable subscribers.