Michel Martin head of CubaPlay Televisión
(Maribel Ramos-Weiner). CubaPlay Televisión, the new signal Olympusat will distribute for the U.S. Hispanic market, will start operations in the second quarter of this year.A Spanish consortium with offices in the U.S., led by entrepreneur Michel Martin owns the channel.The launch of this channel is of historic importance because it has been 52 years since content from Cubas state television has aired in the U.S. Negotiations to secure the rights to this content took over a year and a half, said Martin to PRODU. Martin has the broadcast rights of Cubas state television (comprised of six channels), both for cable and open-air TV in the U.S., as well as the Internet rights worldwide. CubaPlay started with the idea of an IPTV channel, but we later chose cable instead, he added.When asked about the stability of the content of the new channel, Martin pointed out they already have a catalog that covers two years of programming. We also buy entire seasons. This allows us to have programming in advance. Cuba is producing a lot. They have a budget of about US$300 to $400 million, which is significant for a market such as Florida, said Martin.The channel is already negotiating with cable operators and telecoms for its distribution.{See a demo of the programming of CubaPlay;www.produ.tv/popup.html?noti=4850&ID=51492&link=av/CubaPlay-0111/ID.mp4}
