Operator close-up – Brasil Telecom

Brasil Telecom launched its Videon service in the capital Brasilia last October, following much speculation on the nature and scope of their project.  At present Videon is a video on demand service, due to regulatory barriers that prevent Brazil’s telcos from providing broadcast TV services, although the company has itself said that it is ready from a technical standpoint to launch broadcast services and roll out across a larger part of the country: the UTStarcom RollingStream solution selected reportedly has additional capacity available so that the telco can expand the service as and when required.  By Jamie Beach, Online Editor

The Videon service includes time-shift functions and parental control, as well as a search option and favourites.  Brasil Telecom currently offers two types of package to subscribers – a fixed monthly package providing up to 500 hours of programmes, and a pay-per-view option.

ipTV News: What has Brasil Telecom’s initial incursion into providing IPTV been like?

Carlos Watanabe, Director of Business Development and Video Communication: We launched as a video on demand service called Videon about six months ago in the capital Brasilia, initially with 500 hours of on-demand content, and we have already gone on to surpass the 1,000 hours mark.  However, a regulatory barrier in Brazil means that we cannot do multicast, we cannot offer linear channels but only VoD.  We do have extension plans beyond Brasilia and also for linear broadcasting, but we would like an indication from the regulatory body that we can provide a full service before we commit tens of millions of dollars.  In Brasilia it is working well and our subscribers are very excited about it.

Carlos Watanabe, Director of BusDev, Brasil Telecom

What is Brasil Telecom’s content strategy?  What agreements do you already have in place?

CW: Right now we have deals with the major Hollywood studios of Universal, Disney, MGM and Paramount Dreamworks, and on the local we have agreements with some domestic content providers coming into place.  We also offer not only films but documentaries, music, drama…

The thing about acquiring content for a VOD service is that some studios are less keen to release their best content, but it’s getting there, it’s the same process everywhere.

In terms of technology, what did Brasil Telecom select for its deployment?

We are using NEC as the systems integrator over a UTStarcom platform – pretty much everything was supplied by UTStarcom, including the set-top boxes.  In Brasilia the service is working well, with no major technical issues.

What possible value-added services do you envisage?

We are still analysing value-added services: we are true believers in the power of interactivity, and for example we are in talks with portal partners to potentially integrate them into the service – we are currently doing the necessary adjustments to bring these portals to the TV.

If the regulatory barrier were lifted, what kind of potential do you see for IPTV in Brazil compared to other pay TV platforms?

We see much potential – although we are currently the only IPTV service in Brazil, the platform should be very competitive with satellite and it should get up there in time, due to satellite’s inherent disadvantage of being a one way network.