TV Azteca: the 8 keys that will define the future of television

Pedro Carmona Ortiz, technology director of TV Azteca, conveys all the current events of Mexican television and advances 8 keys that will shape the future of broadcast.

TV Azteca, a company belonging to Salinas Group, presents itself as one of the two largest producers of television content in the Spanish-speaking world. Born in 1993, it currently has four national television channels that operates through more than 300 own stations: Azteca One, Azteca 7, adn40 y more +, a network of local signals.

Today, television is completing its transition to a business model in which the content generation It is presented as an axis. TV Azteca not only creates formats for television itself, but exports all types of formats: both for other companies in the Salinas group, such as Totalplay, and for most of the agents of the audiovisual industry.

This effort comes accompanied by a significant investment in technology. Innovation is the axis of TV Azteca's proposal, as it goes beyond each of its divisions and conditions all its activity. With prudence and caution, the Mexican corporation has not hesitated to adopt new business models (SaaS), embrace the new infrastructure (IP), benefit from the latest advances in remote production (production virtualization), build virtual worlds y produce and archive content in UHD.

Pedro Carmona, in first person, reviews the present of TV Azteca without losing sight of tomorrow.

The reason for innovation

“We are part of a very large group, the Salinas Group, in which the word innovation is very relevant. We are focused on constantly seeking a permanence and transcendence that is based on the innovation and allows us to evolve according to the changes that occur in the markets. If we can be sure of one thing, it is that change exists all the time. Change happens naturally; It is not something we can stop or modify. What we can do is adapt to operate correctly effectively and efficiently within the change”.

"How is the concept of change applied to a company like TV Azteca, in which the technological part becomes one of the pillars of the business model? For many years, we have had the motto of innovating and seeking the latest, but without falling into the last generation syndrome. What do I mean? It can be very expensive and dangerous to always want to participate in the latest technological generation that is on the market because, many times, those currents may be wrong. What do we do? With enormous care, we seek take advantage of the benefits that technology offers us to strengthen business operations.”

"It is something that we have had in our skin for many years. We were the first in Mexico to make a HD streaming when the SD was still operating; We were the first to finish the migration to digital transmitters; we were the first to make one pilot transmission in 3D; we were the first to make one 4K live streaming, through our sister company Total Play, a cable company that works through fiber… And, furthermore, I can tell you that today we are pioneers in experimenting with remote production taking advantage of the 5G platform. So, yes: We like innovation and I think we are very good at doing it”.

1. Content marketing as the axis

“In Mexico there are six national chains, of which We transmit four of them. They are very important to us, but They are not the exclusive business model in which we are managing at the moment. We have stopped being exclusively a television station that sells content through traditional air. We are already one content generator that markets them through very different platforms, and here the part of the digital world intervenes a lot.”

"There are many alternative platforms to open television that we already manage and attack; windows that, although they are part of our range of businesses and are still a small part, They are growing at a very high rate. Today, we are already seeing the business model as a generation of content for work on all platforms what's on the market. That said, the technological parts that are relevant to us at the moment are those that become the backbone of the new model or the new architecture of a content producer and marketer”.

2. Video over IP

"He video over IP It is a technology that revolutionizes the industry, since it offers possibilities that are not available with traditional copper wiring and that offers speeds and volumes of information and content transport that allow us to open up to business models that could not be done before due to this limitation on content transfer. This, in turn, returns to the video feasible to market on a lot of platforms that, I repeat, before you couldn't”.

“Es one of the pillars on which we are working. I can't give you specific brands, but I can confirm that it is one of our most transcendent technologies and that we have approached her with some of the main industry players”.

3. The infinite possibilities of 5G

“We are deeply exploring the issue of 5G. The majority of the population associates the 5G concept with more efficient and faster cell phones. However, The 5G platform is much more ambitious than the benefits it can give to telephone companies. The 5G platform offers data and information management solutions that accelerate and make many more efficient. business processes y aspects of communication”.

“We, as Grupo Salinas, a multinational with chain stores Elektra, he Azteca BankAmong other businesses, we manage some very large volumes of information. These volumes of information and content that we handle in TV Azteca they become a critical mass in which the taking advantage of 5G technology for the transfer of information becomes highly relevant. For this reason, Televisión Azteca requested the Mexican authorities in charge of regulating telecommunications issues (IFT), a provisional concession for research on some frequencies of the radio spectrum that can be used for 5G.”

"We are carrying out several communication tests with a supplier in northern Europe and another in Asia. We have had very successful results in matter of process automation and remote production, who have brought us information on how the experience for the viewer can be improved and, in addition, reduce operating costs”.

4. The data business

“We are involved in a very ambitious process management of data, since it has a series of important strategic connotations in many ways. Today, Few people realize the value it has. Have the ability to acquire and collect data; order that collection; add metadata to identify it; and save it so that, with AI processes, models can be generated that allow finding new marketing schemes with the different companies that we have in the group, it becomes very valuable”.

“Now, the entire industry is focused on better use what you know about your consumers. We are not, at all, far from this; On the contrary, we have a very large influx of consumers. Not only through our viewers and our content consumers, but through our other companies, such as Banco Azteca, Elektra or Italika.”

“Jointly with the rest of the group's companies, we are working precisely to seek better data management, looking to the future AI schemes and of the best practices of data analytics in order to strengthen our business units with preferred information. This will allow us a more informed decision making to help us decide What do we want to program, what are our contents, at what times do we program them, etc.”.

5. Subscription cloud models

“We are working with the cloud to be much more efficient in process management remote. We have a lot of local television stations spread throughout Mexico, in locations that have sufficiently complex orography to lay communications networks based on fiber or wires. Through the cloud, we are achieving many remote production, information, and content distribution processes; In short, production, contribution and distribution.”

“We are also abandoned traditional technology. We are migrating from concept in premises (which consists of having hardware-based equipment), and we are going by cloud solutions, style software as a service. It is SaaS model is allowing us practicality in many remote productions. Instead of carrying a traditional mobile unit, which entails a significant cost (fuel, staff to deploy and operate it...), we are betting on different solutions: having a good quality internet connection in the place where you intend to carry out the operation, you can connect with computers to the cloud and have solutions that at other times would be local hardware. In this way, accounts with access to traditional functions, but in modules that are in the cloud and that are paid only for the time you use them”.

“The information is uploaded to the cloud, processed in suites that are in the cloud and, from there, go to hubs storage or redirection that then arrive at our central offices. There, with software as a service, We download those contents and process them. What's more: many times, those contents that were uploaded to the cloud, they remain in the cloud to be processed. There the post-production and all the arrangements are done. editing, color correction, audio adaptation, graphics, and post-production. Then, it is downloaded from the cloud practically as a finished product, whether in a single location or in different ones, which is good for a television station like us that has such a large number of local stations throughout the national territory.”

"These televisions download the content directly and without any problem, which reduces costs in a very interesting way. Definitely, software as a service is a solution that we are adopting in our architecture and we see it as something very promising for the future”.

6. The commercialization of UHD

“The planning of the construction of our new contents significantly infers Who are they designed for?. When we know that part of the content will go to the air and will not be evergreens, so they are ephemeral programs with an expiration date, they are made in Traditional HD, which is also the lowest cost there is. There is no point in spending money on something that It will not be able to be marketed for other platforms. However, everything that is produced and has the possibility of being archived for reuse, whether for regional platforms or for abroad, if they are being producing in UHD”.

“This is a very interesting question, because it is accompanied by a very big controversy. Still There is no format that is universally defined from a commercial point of view, so it is not known which of the UHD formats we should stick to as an industry. “There is still a lot of fighting between equipment manufacturers as to which of the standards will work best for the future.”

“Now we are producing series in UHD as Hernan, a series created with a sister company called Dopamine that is dedicated to content production. In this series, the highest UHD technologies available to ensure that we have masters of the series prepared in UHD for whatever comes in the future. Also, we are recovering formats that had been produced in the past in 4K format so that they remain in a standard of use and storage, and thus are ready to market on future platforms.”

7. Television will be the niche

“As soon as the investment that has been made for the distribution of HD is amortized and technological changes such as 5G occur that allow the transfer of large rates of information at very high speeds, it will be mature the concept of improving the definition. We bet that then will be when it will be relevant to have the content that we are preparing in UHD. In general terms, we are betting on that and we believe that eventually the market is going to require high definition content”.

“Still, you have to understand one thing. UHD is going to be a niche market, because the largest volume will continue to be consumed by mobile devices. Even so, there is a niche market of people who are buying very high definition screens for their living rooms; smart screens that are connected to internet networks through which they will be consuming streams very high definition content. That becomes another type of market.. There you are already selling to the fan of high definition, by following photography; to the consumer who has an educated eye.”

“The use of mobile devices has greatly advanced the visual education of consumers. Consumers pay more attention to quality, lighting elements or photography, because they are now seeing many more screens. The amount of time an average person spends looking at screens with visual content is very high.”.

8. The union of video games and broadcasts

“We are at the dawn of what is going to be a formidable, wonderful and very fun revolution for the viewer. It is the beginning of the inclusion of graphic elements, virtual reality and augmented reality. Because? The video games have far exceeded the sophistication in the generation of virtual content compared to what the leaders were before: the television and cinema. Video games have taken the lead by far. The computers that are used to process video game images; algorithms and mechanisms for developing moving images; and the tracheos, absolutely sophisticated, have opened a formidable universe to increase the complexity of the images that television and cinema can offer the viewer.”

"I don't want archaeologists to have to read this interview. Television is not dying, but rather has evolved. Talking about television is talking about content about digital platforms, OTT, cable and streaming. The consumption of audiovisual content is going to be greatly enriched, because the interactivity what video games can give you when they are connected, with the consumption of audiovisual content. What is going to happen? They are going to get rich in a brutal way. The boundaries between a standard video game and what would be a standard television broadcast are going to get closer. That abyss is getting smaller and there will come a point where they even begin to intermingle.”

“In the near future it will be very identify where a traditional content distribution begins and where the concept of a video game begins. They will intermingle in a very interesting way and the viewer will be able, with special lenses and other devices, to be totally immersed in what they are seeing on the screen. Everything is going to come together and become a single mixture where we are going to see very spectacular technological advances. There are people who are already working in the odor transmission so that you can have a transducer that can simulate them; there is also very advanced elements of suits and gloves that transmit mechanical tactile sensations that have to do with what you are seeing on the screen, not to mention glasses and googles which are very interesting. It's the beginning. I see a great future in this sense”.

Epilogue: the possible future of the metaverse

Pedro Carmona Ortiz has faced the future of television by addressing all the current affairs of TV Azteca from his role as technology director. However, the conversation ends with another question. More personal, closer. A wish for the future:

“As a viewer and person linked to television, what is the improvement, progress or technological innovation that you would like to see over the next few years?”

“The development of a metaverso, but controlled. And why do I say controlled? Because I think that the concept of the metaverse is dangerous, especially for the new generations, since it can reach them get away from what reality is. Reality is beautiful. No glimpse of a metaverse can improve a sunrise, the smell of a flower, or the feeling of walking on wet grass.”

"We cannot rob the new generations, the new children, of the beauty of running through a garden, listening to birds, feeling the fresh air on your face and falling and scraping your knee. We have to take great care of that part so as not to keep them away, sitting in front of a screen with ten thousand electronic gadgets, creating an artificial bubble. The ideal would be to have that controlled metaverse that could be aimed at encouraging these new generations to balance the formidable experiences that this technology was going to give them to live in a fantasy world, but guiding them to develop a taste for nature. It's a weird fantasy. You opened the door, because you said it was worth asking, and I'm asking for something that seems like a charade. But it is not.”

“I am, for obvious reasons, a technology fanatic. But my fantasy would be to know that my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren are not going to be locked in a room full of screens and connected to cables with magnetic interfaces close to the brain and doing all the things that we know they will be able to do in the future, but rather having the sensitivity to go out for a run and kick a ball. That would be ideal: a metaverse that would encourage the development of sensitivity to nature”.

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez