Advanced Television

Mexico’s Maxcom plans online TV service

September 26, 2011

Mexico’s Maxcom Telecomunicaciones is set to launch an online video and live television rental service using a technology that allows streaming with a very low broadband speed. The telco already offers phone and Internet services in Mexico, where it has around 100,000 broadband users, The service will pitch it into competition with Netflix’s recently-launched operation in the country.

Vice President of marketing Gabriel Cejudo has revealed that the new service, Yuzu, to be launched next week, will offer a monthly subscription price of 149 pesos (€8.14) while the service reaches its first 10,000 users.

Yuzu’s offer is slightly above the 99 pesos offering from Netflix, but unlike Netflix, Maxcom will add live television streaming to its mix.

“If you run on at least half a MB (megabit), our platform will work just fine,” Cejudo said, pointing out that the technology used by Yuzu allows the streaming to adjust automatically to fluctuating broadband speed – common in Mexico depending on traffic – to guarantee a steady image at all times.

Mexican users have an average internet connection speed of 2 MB, though much faster and pricier speeds of up to 50 MB or 100 MB are available with a handful of providers, mostly in large cities.

Yuzu, which expects to reach half a million subscribers within its first year of operation, will offer an initial movie catalogue of some 500 titles but by early 2012 it expects to grow it to 3,000 titles. Additionally, it will offer 20 channels such as HBO, Fox and Turner, for live television streaming on anything from laptops to smartphones.

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