Buenos Aires Web Fest (BAWebFest), the first international web series festival in South America that brings together local and international projects marketed over the internet, had its 2019 edition in Argentina. One of the most outstanding sessions of the day was starred by Felipe Becerra (content manager of Telecom), Gustavo Castro (chief of contents of Movistar TV) and Martín Lucas (executive director of OTT Contar), in the session ‘Local OTTs’.

One of the more relevant items presented was the launch of Movistar Play by Telefónica, an OTT for Movistar clients, recently launched in Argentina. It is a freemium service with two own channels (one of series and another of eSports); a VOD and a TVOD service, to rent movies and series. In addition, customers can hire a FTA pack, news and music or HBO networks.

Telecom emphasized on its co-productions  development, and highlighted the growth of its Flow package since its launch in Argentina and Uruguay, which managed to record 1.5 million clients, with availability of more than 200 channels and 200 on demand. Additionally, Martín Lucas explained that Contar now has 2,650 hours of content, where 1,100 belongs to fiction, 1,400 to documentaries, 100  to historical games thanks to an agreement with Fifa, and 4 original series.

Looking to the future, executives pointed out that online users experiences will have a determining role. ‘We need to see what OTTs are still alive in the future. Today it seems that anyone gets their OTT, but  audiences can not access all, either by its cost or by the number of options. We want to be the content’s ‘supermarket’, and just as able links channels, we want to link contents and not only centralize from them, but also from the experience,’ said Becerra. Castro added that ‘we focus so much on the recommendation algorithm, that the feeling for all of us to end up watching the same thing is worrying. Differentiating ourselves in finding that hidden content, simplifying the client’s experience, will be the key’.