IPTV Americas (IPTVA), a satellite-based IPTV solutions provider, is searching for outside investments as it looks to go to the next level of its growth strategy, CEO Alvaro Gazzolo told Via Satellite.
    IPTVA signed a deal in February with SES New Skies for space on the NSS-806 satellite, enabling IPTVA to offer an end-to-end satellite-delivered IPTV distribution solution to all telecoms and cable operators’ headends in Latin America and the Caribbean. For IPTVA, profitability depends on how many deals it can finalize with small telcos and cable players within Latin America and the Caribbean.

Gazzolo: We will need further funding going forward. Unfortunately, the financial crisis hit right in the middle of our private placement for financing. We needed the money for expansion and taking the company to the next level. Today, we are looking for capital partners so we can take the company to the next level … to expand the headend, have multiple other feeds and become a key player in Latin America for the small and medium size operators.

Gazzolo: We don’t spend as much money. We are lean and intelligent in how we invest money. I have spent a fraction of what SES or Avail did in the United States. We need around 40 to 50 deals with small cable players/telcos to become profitable. Right now, we are on track to close 30 deals this year. So, we hope to be profitable by 2010.

Gazzolo: The cable companies are much more flexible to deal with than the telcos and they know the meaning of time to market. Telcos are not going to make any commitment to pay-TV unless their bottom line is affected. Telefonica in Chile started an IPTV trial in 2003. It was only in 2005 that they made a serious commitment with their deployment of a platform in 2006-07. They did this because the cable company in Chile stole the top 300,000 subscribers from Telefonica in Chile via a triple- play offering. Only then, were they able to react. We cannot wait for the telcos. We have developed a solution for IP cable. We have already signed agreements. We have signed several cable operators in markets such as Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. We are proving that the system works.

Gazzolo: Smaller operators have no choice but to offer IPTV services if they want to succeed against the current industry giants in the region. Telefonica and Telmex have both gone on a shopping spree in recent years in Latin America. The cable companies that are left have looked to have a pessimistic future. They either have to invest to upgrade their network, or they will die. Telefonica and Telmex also have an advantage when acquiring content. For smaller operators, they are faced with stark choices. We are helping these operators. We’re aiming to provide the smaller operators with a solution to upgrade their entire network for IPTV in a price range between $30,000 and $40,000. Our role is to get all the small operators under one umbrella. They will benefit from our solution. The content providers also don’t want the smaller operators to go away.

Gazzolo: In the United States, you have a greater proliferation of HD services. When SES developed their satellite headend, they had to spend huge amounts of dollars. I don’t know how much money they were burning, but I guess it was a lot. It was impossible to make the numbers work. We have a different reality to IP Prime. We provide a hybrid solution to Latin America. We use SES infrastructure to support our system. We take advantage of the big infrastructure they have.