On May 2, the director of the National Planning Department, DPN, Simón Gaviria, presented the results of a study that shows the absence of a normative, institutional and regulatory environment that recognizes convergence in the audiovisual world.
Luis Pinto*
Simón Gaviria's presentation began with a brief but accurate diagnosis of television, noting that the classification of TV services is outdated. "The traditional classification established in Law 182 of 1995 has been maintained in Colombia, even after Law 1507 of 2012 and today, within the framework of convergence, there are new business models and content provision that leads us to review this aspect."
I would say that he hit the nail on the head by mentioning that "International actors, outside of Colombian legislation, are generating additional challenges in regulatory, institutional and public policy matters" and that "Convergence is changing the consumption profiles of people who are redistributing the composition of the market."
The ICT Minister, David Luna, seems to have the intention of modifying this panorama and since March 4 he arranged a series of working groups in different cities with a clear and defined objective, to identify the issues or subjects that must be subject to adjustment, modification or definition, starting the discussions on the new public policy of TV and Digital Audiovisual Content.
The great conclusion at the end of the day was "A convergent, independent and autonomous regulatory body with sufficient technical expertise is required to regulate the audiovisual and ICT sector in an inclusive and prospective manner, for which it is necessary to have a legal framework that guarantees coverage, competition, a balance of burdens and compensation that allows the development of inclusive and social audiovisual content."
The DNP proposes the creation of a new financing scheme for public TV and to review the economic burdens for audiovisual market agents. This new scheme must preserve the philosophy of community TV, under a mechanism of graduation of loads that helps the digitization of networks, on the other hand that preserves subscription TV; the digital content industry is promoted and the use of new technologies such as Big Data for sectoral inspection and surveillance.
In the same scenario, the panel "Financing and economic burdens" took place, this forum was attended by Tulio Ángel, president of Asomedios; Alberto Yohai, Executive President of the Colombian Chamber of Informatics and Telecommunications, CCIT; José Fernando Bautista, former Minister of Communications; Germán Darío Arias, Director of the Communications Regulation Commission, CRC, and Ángela Mora Soto, Director of the National Television Authority, ANTV, who stressed that public television must always be a priority for the state since democracy materializes in it.
As he said, "Our duty is to promote quality content and ensure that public television receives the necessary resources to create it." The panel generally agreed that these resources should also be captured by OTT (over the top) services and not only by private operators whose advertising revenues are gradually being reduced by the impact of digital media. For the director of Asomedios, Tulio Ángel, it is clear that "the current model of pay television is not working and a convergent regulator is needed".
Digital Next analyzed industry challenges
Ernesto Orozco, member of the Board of Directors of the ANTV, participated in Digital Next, an international event that brought together leaders from the media and digital sector to talk about the future and the challenges of the industry. In this meeting he argued that the audiovisual market is only one of which a symmetry is generated between telecommunications providers and other information services that also do so.
"We must reduce as much as possible, these asymmetries that are being presented and allow our operators to face the challenge represented by the digital economy and the provision of information services through web connections." He added that although the sector is innovating by including services such as multichannel or pay-per-view, deregulating such services is a way for the sector to balance. At the end, he stressed that the challenge is not to issue a new Television Law, the challenge is to adopt a digital economy policy.
The Communications Regulation Commission, CRC, is no stranger to the dynamics of change demanded by the market and bets on the draft resolution "Audiovisual markets in a convergent environment, by which annexes 01 and 02 of Resolution CRT 2058 of 2009 are modified, establishes the regulatory framework for commercial negotiations regarding the rights of retransmission of broadcast open signals broadcast by service operators of broadcast free-to-air television, and other provisions are made".
The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce is not far behind, presented its research in March and launched the "Study of Access to Mobile Internet Service in Colombia" with which it was evidenced that at present and after making 4G technology available, two new agents entered the telecommunications market in Colombia and it is expected that many more will enter in the future. This opening generated savings for Colombians of more than 28 million dollars due to an increase in the offer of mobile internet services.
Juan Pablo Herrera, coordinator of Economic Studies of the Superindustry, explained that the aforementioned savings have been reflected in greater possibilities of commercial plans. He added: "Before the allocation of 4G spectrum, the country had strong restrictions to offer mobile internet service and a smaller number of participating agents, after the allocation of said technology and with the recommendations of the Superintendence we have today a more competitive market with more opportunities for users of mobile operators in Colombia."
In the report presented as a result of the study, it is also evident that today there are around 5 million 133 thousand mobile internet subscribers in Colombia, which represents a growth of the market product of the evolution of the sector. From 2014 to 2015, users who accessed mobile internet in the country grew by about one million, with Claro, Telefónica and Tigo being the three most important operators in the market at the moment.
WebCongress 2016
These figures are very important given the trends of current consumers and future users who will demand video on multiple platforms, especially mobile. This is one of the main conclusions that were given at the WebCongress 2016, the digital marketing & innovation event with worldwide recognition in more than 10 countries, was brought to Bogotá by the newspaper La República, was developed in the Cubo Colsubsidio on May 12 and 13.
It was an event full of innovation, technology and digital trends. In their keynote talks they talked about current strategies in digital marketing, the most important brands in the industry shared their secrets of their successes in social media, mobile and search among others. All this complemented with the practical workshops, was a space for updating current issues and the hand of experts.
Isabel Mejía, Deputy Minister of Information Technologies and Systems, was one of the first speakers to give a conference on Digital Government and Global Trends. He presented real figures from his different studies on four global trends, the first of these trends is that of Open Government, followed by Big Data, the Internet of Things and digital security.
Pamela Goggia Sr. Sales Product Specialist, Brand, LATAM of Twitter, spoke about myths and truths on the platform, the so-called Power of now: More than ever users say what they want and what they like. Pamela says this is true and that content producers need to know how to leverage and maximize content.
To say that "Less is more", Advertisers are always asked to develop new, original and ad hoc content to each platform is a Myth. You have to know how with a commercial you can get more than one piece of content.
That the video on the Twitter platform does not bring good results is a real myth. The figures show that it is effective, you just have to have best practices to get the most out of it. And finally it is true that viewability is important and relevant for brands.
Carlos Mateus, Vice President of Samsung Colombia Mobile Division and Walid González, Product Director of Samsung Colombia, talked about what their company is developing "virtual reality: the other reality" this thanks to its Samgung Gear VR glasses.
This reality is nothing more than watching the video with a 360-degree panorama all the time, all the images, it is a business that is growing enormously, it is expected that in the next three or four years it will reach 30 million dollars. The first development is video play, recording experiences, theme parks and everything that has to do with education, construction and a number of applications and opportunities.
In the talk of Felipe Villa, Sales Manager of Google, he talked about connectivity and how mobile devices are transforming society and how they will continue to do so, what new consumers expect due to their permanent connectivity and you can think of this phenomenon. Google advances the Project Loon is composed of a network of balloons that will travel over the border with outer space providing access to the Internet, Google partners with telecommunications companies to share the cellular spectrum, thus allowing people to connect to the network of the globe directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices.
The signal passes through the globe's network and returns to the global Internet on Earth. It is designed to connect people who live in remote or rural areas, to reach areas with lack of coverage, one of its conclusions is that the trend is given that users will be more connected with the mobile.
I must conclude that things do not change by themselves, the consumer, industry and the State are very dynamic in this digital environment, their consumption habits, the market and legislation are giving a wallow to everything that at one time we took for granted, we must not stay to expect to be left out of the change, let us be part of it.
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