The last Nextv Series Mexico’s panel was titled ‘TV apps strategies’. Some of the key issues of the debate were related to how to spread TV apps on streaming devices; the role of mobile phones as the first or second screen; and state of the art TV app models.
Industry executives gathered by Dataxis to star in the debate were Carlos Sanchez Rojas, Digital Strategy & Creative Director at TV Azteca; Andres Nieto Serpa, Director Latin America at Marca Claro / Claro Sports; and Hector Rodriguez, Sales Latam at Accedo.
Regarding how TV Azteca’s offer is currently structured with regard to TV apps, Sanchez Rojas reported that ‘we currently have three applications available: Azteca Deportes; Azteca Noticias and Azteca en Vivo. The ‘Azteca en Vivo’ application is our OTT, and also our interaction app, where it is possible to vote, learn more about our audiences favourite programs, watch previous episodes, and other features. It is a combination of a very interactive part and content we have and what is happening on the live screen’.
Regarding the recently announced agreement between Claro Sports and Huawei, Nieto Serpa assured that ‘we had been working on it since March, Huawei sought us out to be able to integrate linear channels to its Huawei Video application. They sought us out for the content we have, for the rights we have for the Bundesliga, the Olympic Games, world swimming and athletics championships; and we were able to integrate the linear channel. On November 1st we held a soft launch; as of November 15th, it was already available on all Huawei cell phones in Mexico; and the idea is to expand it to Latin American countries where we also have rights to broadcast our content, together with Huawei. The idea for the future is to be able to do something in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Bolivia, where we have rights. We cannot offer content to which we have no rights’.
‘The aim is always to be available on as many devices as possible. It is not possible to allow ourselves the luxury that our consumers want to look for us and not find us’, reported Sanchez Rojas. This way, Rodriguez assured that ‘Accedo is a company with 15 years of experience in the creation and distribution of apps. It is a process that goes from the design and conception of each app, for each device, also thinking about each of the audiences that will use those devices. This creates a complexity, because the fact of looking for an application and not finding it is extremely disappointing for consumers, and that is precisely what we help to take care of: that interaction, on multiple platforms, with our clients subscribers, through different developments and packages that we have to bring sustainable and scalable developments in an easy, fast and simple way, to multiple devices at the same time’. Also, Sanchez Rojas reported that ‘the greatest challenge is to speak to each audience and each platform in their language’.
On the other hand, according to Rodriguez, regarding the challenges and problems when trying to scale a video app from one device to the other and how it can be faced, he assured that ‘it is important to choose a good partner, who is in the hands of producers, to understand what its need is, what its audience is, and how it wants to communicate to each of the different screens. For example, communicating with iOS and Android audiences is very different from communicating with an audience that watches content on connected devices or smart TVs. The need is based on the fact that each client is different’.
Regarding the indications to determine the quality of a video app, Nieto Serpa reported that ‘it lies in the fact that the experience of knowing what the client wants to find and what they are offered must work. We all agree that we cannot make mistakes and we must minimize errors. Today the world is full of apps, but the one that gives the best experience, and the ones that are the most seductive, will always work’.