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DirecTV’s growth strategy for Latin America

June 9, 2011

Maribel Ramos-Weiner

Gunter Kamper, VP of broadcast operations at DirecTV Latin America

(Maribel Ramos-Weiner). From its broadcast center in Los Angeles, DirecTV beams most of the channels it airs in the United States plus some high definition channels for Latin America. Gunter Kamper, VP of broadcast operations at DirecTV Latin America, told PRODU during a tour of the satellite TV service’s installations in L.A. that the company televises over 1,100 channels in the United States and Latin America, of which some 200 are high definition. “It’s a mix of several types of channel – commercial, sports, pay per view,” he said.Another element the executive pointed out during the visit is that DirecTV transmits from five broadcast centers in the United States and Latin America – two in the U.S. and the others in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Caracas. It has a broadcasting affiliate in Mexico as well. “We have the ability to provide redundancy in case a facility runs into a problem. We have the ability to keep the channels operating and running even if one of our facilities has a problem.”Kamper said the satellite company has a five-year strategy for significant growth in Latin America that makes the most of today’s favorable economic environment and the region’s growing TV markets. “The projected growth calls for significant amounts of investment. We’ll invest in new broadcast centers in particular markets, we´ll offer expanded commercial advertising capabilities, and we will be able to customize programming per country to maximize our ad revenues and provide a higher quality of specific market-driven programs for each particular market.”{Watch video interview with Gunter Kamper, DirecTV Latin America;www.produ.tv/popup.html?noti=5110&ID=52738&link=av/GunterKamper-May11/Strategy.mp4} – {Watch mobile version;quick.produ.com/av/GunterKamper-May11/StrategyMovil.mov}