LATAM undergoes OTT boost as state funds VOD service

According to analysts from Business Bureau, a majority of over 250 OTT platforms available in Latin America are privately-funded, however, public platforms have significantly grown.

Privately-funded platforms are either independent or run by pay-TV operators, and public platforms are on the rise especially because they are into the distribution of Latin America-produced content.

The leading public OTT platform in the region is Argentina’s Cine.ar Play, which has over 700 local VOD titles and more than 700,000 registered users. It also offers a transactional VOD (TVOD) service for the latest premieres and has just released a free international catalog.

Retina Latina is a free VOD service that competes in the local market with 160 films produced in the country and is funded by Colombia’s minister of culture. Chile has Ondamedia, supported by the Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes, with over 300 titles, and Antel has just supported the launch of ClickVeo! in Uruguay.

Tomás Gennari, EVP, Business Bureau, said, “In an industry in which OTT offering is growing larger, multi-screen users have become more demanding. OTTs should try to be different, and content quality is one of the distinguishing factors. Local content shows proximity to the audience and enables the platform to increase the reach of local directors, artists, and producers.”