Colombia. With a population of 20 million Colombians still without internet service, and with little encouraging news such as a "5G Spectrum Allocation Framework Plan", which until now was announced and that delays us with respect to other countries in its implementation, the country feels left and far from the mass adoption of technologies such as OTT (over-the-top, freely transmitted), which require these fifth-generation networks to achieve robust audio and video transmissions over the Internet.
This panorama reflects the great distance we are still at with respect to the pioneer countries in the implementation of 5G, such as the United States, undisputed leader in this aspect, which today registers very revealing figures such as the 16 million families that cut their cable television services to move fully to streaming video, according to the Nielsen report, published in January of this year.
According to Juan Pablo Morales, speaker present at the TecnoTelevisión & Radio fair to be held in Corferias, from October 23 to 25, "it is evident that Colombia is in a slow process and while coverage arrives in the country that allows fluid speed and that provides a good experience for the user, there will be no greater disconnection from cable television, and less to free-to-air television, therefore, there will also be no large growth in subscriptions to streaming services."
Now, when this happens, warns Morales, "as in other latitudes with greater technological development, this medium will have to reinvent itself and the trend will point to that, in Colombia, cable television becomes a medium dedicated primarily to live content, while drama and entertainment formats will become the domain of large OTT platforms such as Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Hulu and Apple that work in the VOD format, or video on demand."
While this progresses, free-to-air television will continue to reign thanks to its penetration and commercial power, however nothing will prevent traditional channels from sooner or later joining the global trends of setting up their own OTT platforms to take advantage of the commercialization of their existing catalogs. This is what countless companies are doing in this new industry, adopting different types of technologies according to the specific needs of their potential customers, and their business models.
One of these trends is live television, reinforced with solutions such as Video / Audio on Demand or Catch-Up TV, which is the functionality that allows encrypting a television program already broadcast, and offering it so that it can be played on other devices.
Another is adaptive streaming, which adapts the reception of the signal to the bandwidth available at all times, so that if the user browses the Internet, he can use all the bandwidth to watch television by this means, and if he browses, the broadcast adapts to the possibilities of the connection that exist in his house. Likewise, hybrid television platforms for virtual PayTV operators that offer, in a single package, access to content from OTT channels, channels with over-the-air signal and premium channels can be highlighted.
Using these formats and technologies, platforms such as Tv Up, Perseo, IonPlayer, True IP and ÑÑtv already work, the latter with a presence in Spain, Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Colombia, or Edye, a platform aimed at the pre-school public that provides many facilities for parental control and content management, and which is aimed at parents of children at these ages.
Now, with the proliferation of these platforms, a change in business based on this new trend is also foreseen because the great pioneers have already found their market niches but the small ones will have to fight to "be seen", and they will surely have to go to subscription-based services or the AVOD format (Advertising Video On Demand), or on-demand advertising and other sources of income to survive.
To deepen on these issues, Juan Pablo Morales, who is general director of Nuevos Medios Entertaiment, a company dedicated to the creation and commercialization of digital content, will be present with his talk at the academic congress of the TecnoTelevisión y Radio 2019 fair that from October 23 to 25 will bring together the most important representatives of these industries, in the middle of an important commercial exhibition and a high-rise net working space that will be held in the Great Hall of Corferias.
