DirecTV is among the bidders seeking to offer free-to-air DTH services in Colombia. A total of four parties have responded to the Colombian National Television Commission’s RfP for its planned Free Social Satellite TV project.
Alongside DirecTV Latin…
DirecTV is among the bidders seeking to offer free-to-air DTH services in Colombia. A total of four parties have responded to the Colombian National Television Commission’s RfP for its planned Free Social Satellite TV project.
Alongside DirecTV Latin America are the Spanish and Mexican telecoms giants Telefonica and Telmex, as well as Mexican broadcast network and production specialist Comtelsat.
Under the terms of the project, the winning bidder will need to provide free satellite television services to the 8% of the Colombian population that currently has no access to such services. The scheme aims to provide up to 200 municipal towns with 15 public national and regional channels for the first time.
The winning bidder will be announced in July 2010, with services expected to be launched by the beginning of 2011.
Telefonica and Telmex have spend the past couple of years ramping up their triple-play offerings across Latin America, with DTH services a core part of this. As well as competing directly and indirectly with them in a number of countries such as Chile and Brazil, DirecTV Latin America actually leases its services to its rivals in countries where they are banned from providing their own service, such as Telefonica in Argentina.
Headquartered in Mexico City, Comtelsat predominantly operates in Mexico and the US, however, over the past year it has been seeking to expand into South America and, alongside Colombia, the company is planning to launch services in Brazil and Argentina.