Argentina, Venezuela sign agreement to boost digital TV content

The governments of Argentina and Venezuela have signed an agreement to jointly develop content for digital TV in both countries, news site TodoTVnews reported The agreement was signed by Argentina's federal planning minister Julio de Vido and Venezuela's communications minister Ernesto Villegas. The deal stipulates the exchange of audiovisual content as well as the transfer of the necessary technology services for audiovisual content production. Argentina has been closely working with Venezuela on the deployment of digital TV services in the latter country. Argentina's federal planning ministry launched the second phase of the country's digital TV network project early this year, through which it expects to deploy 40 new stations nationwide. During the first phase of the project 50 stations were set up. The government has already distributed 1.2mn terrestrial digital TV decoders under its connectivity plan, mainly to low-income sectors of the population. The second phase of the program stipulates the distribution of another 650,000 decoders nationwide, according to previous reports. The existing infrastructure provides coverage to 75% of Argentina. The government expects that level to rise to 86%, with 90 stations during the second phase which is slated for completion early in 2014. Meanwhile, Venezuela expects its digital TV service to reach 80% of the country's population by 2015. Over 126,000 homes across the country already have access to digital TV services, the government said in a previous statement.