Pay TV Panel in AW LatAm: Future of pay TV requires emphasizing production of local contents

The difficulties that exist to measure audiences correctly, the way content production evolved, as well as the advantages TV continues to have and how it is transforming, were some of the topics covered during the event Visión Panorámica: Industria de la Televisión y el Entretenimiento, that took place during the Advertising Week Latin America, in Mexico City.

The panel included Enrique Martínez, president of the Board of Directors of LAMAC, as moderator; Carlos Martínez, president of FOX Networks Group Latin America; Klaudia Bermúdez, SVP and general director of NBCUniversal International Networks Latin America; Ricardo Debén, Executive VP and General Director of AMCNI-Latin America; Alexander Marín, Senior Distribución VP for LatAm and US Hispanic, Sony Pictures Television (SPT); Fernando Medin, president and General Director of Discovery Networks Latin America/US Hispanic; Eduardo Ruiz, president and General Director of A+E Networks Latin America; Laura Pérez, VP de Distribución– Affiliate Sales Latin America at Viacom International Media Networks and Tomás Yankelevich, EVP and CCO, General Entertainment for Turner Latin America.

“The topic of measurement is our Achilles heel, and even though the technology exists, it requires investment from measurement companies, but they are not doing that,” said Eduardo Ruiz, from A+E.

For his part, Tomás Yankelevich, from Turner, said that they are currently producing and working in collaboration with almost all the brands seated at the panel, which, at another time would have been impossible. “It also attracts our attention that Netflix and Amazon join us to buy content, there must be a reason for that,” he pointed out.

Carlos Martínez, from FOX, mentioned how consumption has changed, after pointing out that a Mexican consumes 6 hours of television per day when in 2000 he used to consume three hours.

All of them stated that they were producing more content and raising the quality, and they all agree on that doing so with an emphasis on local productions is part of the success formula. “Part of the aim is to make more localized content strategy and understand what the consumer wants,” said Alexander Marín, from Sony.

Ricardo Debén, from AMCNI, said that they increasingly feel that they are working in a content company, more than a television one. Content continues to be king, stated Klaudia Bermúdez, from NBCUniversal, after mentioning that once they manage to correctly measure the audience they have, “our price will have to be adjusted because now, it is a bargain.”