Frank Smith´s new position as president of New Media Distribution and Development at HBO Latin America is part of a restructuring the company has been going through for a couple of months.
“Our content, made in Latin America, is seen in more than 50 countries in Asia, Europe, and the US. Now that we have a robust and awarded catalog, we want to venture into introducing ourselves as producers and generate additional income to continue producing in the region” mentioned Smith.
In fact, to conquer new markets with this original content that they generate, they are going to leverage on Xavier Aristimuño, new Licensing VP.
Smith believes that the barrage of new technologies is a positive change, and they have growth expectations for the next years.
“HBO and its group of premium channels was limited to reaching a certain number of homes, due to distributors’ technological shortcomings. Now, the increase of homes with Internet services has prepared us to cater to these new distribution windows. Growth opportunities multiply, maintaining our original contents, contributing with distributors and new players in the business,” he commented.
Last year they launched their products in the digital Apple and Google stores in Latin America and Brazil as another way to increase their audiences. He clarified that this doesn’t mean they are going to abandon their traditional distribution channel. “We work with the operators who have to make their technological investments to go out and find more homes,” he added.