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Olympusat: We have closed three agreement with mobile companies for Vemox

October 2, 2018

Maribel Ramos-Weiner

Tom Mohler Olympusat

During the panel How Traditional and New Distributors are Attracting Diverse Audiences in a Hyper-Competitive Environment, Álvaro Saralegui, Marketing and Fan Development Strategy Consultant at NFL said the way business is conducted with their distributors have varied a great deal and has impacted their business model.

“We started with the big broadcasters. Then, we began to do streaming, very relevantly with Verizon for mobile streaming, which we renegotiated this year. The way we distribute NFL throughout all the media, including social networks and new businesses such as mitú or Fandom –which you might not know— has been good for us and aims at the 12-35-year-old demo. It has changed the way we do business and has impacted our business model,” commented Saralegui.

Tom Mohler, CEO of Olympusat highlighted that his platform Vemox, that is exclusively B2B, has currently closed three deals with mobile companies, one of which is Cricket. “What we are doing here is creating a two-tier system: a basic one that is free for subscribers, and a premium one,” he said.

Mohler also mentioned scripted programming. “In scripted, if you eliminate telenovelas in Latin America –because we all know their ratings have been declining— in 2017 only 50 scripted shows were produced, whereas only in the US there were 600,” he added. He said there is a great opportunity in that area.

For her part, Mónica González-Piriz, Head of Content Acquisitions at Digicel, said they are making many requests to their programming partners: “For the devices, we are requesting all kinds of rights, from traditional linear to OTT. We are also requesting many discounts because the OTT margin is not the same as the traditional one,” she expressed.