Since he began in TV in the US, Jorge E. Fiterre, founder and partner of Condista, believed and bet on the growth of pay-TV in Spanish. In his years working in Adelphia Cable, Fiterre closely saw the potential of content in Spanish.
“I started to see the need for channels in Spanish. Some were starting, but they were generally from US companies translated into Spanish, except one: Canal SUR. This signal presented newscasts and news programs from across all Latin America, and I saw how the community welcomed it,” he highlighted.
In the year 1999, almost the same time when DISH Networks and DIRECTV announced the launch of their packages in Spanish, Fiterre founded Condista a name that has its origin in Content Distribution Associates. Canal SUR was its first client, followed by José Luis Rodríguez´s Puma TV and TVE.
Seeing this success, other channels began to approach it, such as HTV, Infinito, and Utilísima from Argentina –in those days part of Claxson. At the time, Fiterre partners with Burke Berendes, whom he had known from this time in Adelphia when Berendes was his client with Gems TV.
Fiterre feels there is no other pay-TV company that offers the diversity of services that Condista does. “Not only are we talking about domestic distribution in the US, but international, ad sales, technological services, technical assistance, content processing, administrative, and legal services,” he detailed.
The company currently represents an average of 30 channels between the US and Latin America.