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April 16, 2010
Argentina is launching a commercial digital terrestrial television service, using the Japanese ISDB-T standard, on 1 May. The government plans to give away one million set-top boxes to low income families in an effort to give digital access to those homes that cannot afford cable or satellite TV before the World Cup finals in June.
Some 65 transmitters will be installed across the country in all nine major cities and with five transmitters in Buenos Aires, reaching 75% of the Argentinean population. The digital package will include public broadcast channels Canal 7, Encuentro, children's channel Paka Paka, and movie channel INCAA, with other channels to be decided. The investment in this project is around $154m.
Digital TV penetration is still very low in Argentina with only 16.23 per cent of the 10.2m TV households having any type of digital service. The main pay TV operator with 3m subscribers is Grupo Clarin, owner of cable operators Cablevision and Multicanal. The government move to give away set top boxes has been criticised in local reports for being politically motivated. Last year, Grupo Clarin was stripped of the rights to the Argentinean football league, with live matches moving to the free-to-air Canal 7.
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