Greg Riker of Metrological: Two-year delay in the integration of OTTs and D2Cs in pay TV in LatAm

In Latin America, the rate of integration of OTT apps and new direct-to-consumer services (D2C) is two years behind the US and some European countries, according to Greg Riker, head of Sales and Business Development for the Americas from Metrological.

Riker was part of the panel How to integrate OTTs and the new D2Cs? of NexTV Content Distribution Latin America of Dataxis; along with Riker, Mónica González Piriz, Head of Content Acquisition, Digicel Group, and Sebastián Snaider, VP of Distribution, Starzplay.

According to González they have focused on the integration of two or three apps that are considered the most culturally relevant. Digicel, which operates in the Caribbean, has been focused on becoming a digital operator with more broadband and mobile users than TV.

Riker noted that web-based and open applications will increase the pace of integration of these services as they have fewer device requirements. “Operators in the US and Europe are pushing these web-based applications, which is why they can deliver multiple apps at the same time in an efficient way,” he explained. He affirmed that the integration of apps definitely improves the offer of the operators.

Snaider said that they know that there is a backlog in the integration of these OTTs and D2Cs and are aware of the limited amount of set-top boxes in the region with capacity for these integrations. He explained that prior to 2018, Starz’s priority in the region was content licensing, but then with the global reach, they decided to launch in Latin America with Starzplay. They will be announcing new markets soon.