VTR (Chile)

VTR (formerly known as VTR Cablexpress) is a Chilean telecommunications company. It provides cable television, IPTV, fixed telephony, fiber optics, Internet access and mobile telephony services nationwide. In addition to their main activities, they own a long-distance carrier (111), a movie and series rental service (VOD channel 900, acronym for VTR On Demand), and a streaming service with content from the channels available on its service (VTR Play). It also has the VTR Foundation, created with the aim of articulating social and cultural action in the country, through actions and projects involving information technologies.

Since March 14, 2014, his property has been 100% owned by the Anglo-Dutch-American group Liberty Global; Until that date, the group controlled 80% of the company and the remaining 20% belonged to businessman Álvaro Saieh through VivoCorp, who acquired said percentage in 2010 from Ricardo Claro through Grupo Claro. On January 2, 2018, Liberty Global separated its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, creating Liberty Latin America, which includes VTR in its business portfolio.

On September 29, 2021, the company announced its merger with Claro Chile; This information was provided by Liberty Latin America and América Móvil, parent companies of both companies. In October 2022, the National Economic Prosecutor's Office authorized the merger, but required the sale of the satellite business. The new joint venture will be called ClaroVTR.

As of January 2023, its new corporate building is located at Av. El Salto 5450, Ciudad Empresarial, Huechuraba, Santiago, Chile, thus leaving its emblematic building located at Av. Apoquindo 4800, Las Condes commune.

History

VTR and its beginnings.

It was founded on September 26, 1928 as Vía Trans Radio Chilena Compañía de Radiotelegrafía, from the joint investment made by the Radio Corporation of America, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, the Compagnie Generale de Telegraphie sans Fils and the Telefunken Gesellschaft. The company provided radiotelegraphic services inside and outside the country, being one of the first private telecommunications companies in Chile. Its first president was Emiliano Figueroa Larraín and its first manager was Alberto Sottorff.

In the 1980s, VTR Telecomunicaciones was the first company to offer the automatic direct dialing service and introduced to the country technologies such as fiber optics, fax, and data transmission networks, among others.^{[ citation needed]} In 1986, the French company Thomson —owner of 25% of the property— sold its stake to Grupo Luksic, the latter taking control of the company through Antofagasta PLC.

Introduction of cable television

The decline of the telex business coincided with the development of cellular telephony in the country. In this last business, VTR was particularly relevant after obtaining one of the first operating licenses for said service in Chile in a strategic association with Telefónica CTC Chile, forming Startel Celular.^{[citation required]}

In 1993, Telecable Sur S.A was established, the first step taken by VTR in the pay television industry. Then, VTR acquired 75% of the company Maxivisión S.A, the only operator in Chile of wireless technology MMDS for microwave television. Thus, an ambitious plan was launched for the development of this line of business in the telecommunications industry. At the end of that year, all the companies of the VTR group were consolidated under VTR Inversiones, structuring themselves into three large business areas: long distance, basic telephony and cellular telephony.

During the course of 1994, VTR acquired several regional cable TV networks in the southern zone of Chile and ended that year with 46,000 subscriber households. The following year, the American company Southwestern Bell Corp. (SBC) acquired 49% ownership of the company.

VTR Telecable, VTR's cable television subsidiary, continued integrating cable networks in Santiago and southern Chile until, in October 1995, VTR acquired Cablexpress S.A., a company that had 50,000 subscribers and the transmission rights television of the National Soccer Championship. Thus, VTR Cablexpress S.A. was formed.^{[citation required]}

In 1996, VTR Cablexpress formed the VTR Hipercable group (which made up VTR Cablexpress S.A., TV Max, the microwave television, and later in 1997 DirecTV digital television) after carrying out a strategic merger with the North American United International Holdings (UIH, currently Liberty Media, former UnitedGlobalCom), which obtained 34% of the company with this transaction. UIH had cable television operations in the northern zone of Chile, through its subsidiary STX S.A., and in the central zone of the country through Cablevisión S.A. In this way, VTR consolidated a national pay television network.

HFC and the development of broadband and telephony

During 1997, VTR Cablexpress developed the local telephone service over its HFC network (hybrid fiber optic and coaxial cable), thus initiating the technological project that would allow it to expand this service to the main cities of the country and compete as an actor in the country's telecommunications sector. Also during that year, VTR signed an exclusive contract with Galaxy Latin America, becoming the first company in Latin America and the Caribbean to offer satellite television under the Global Liberty brand.

Based on the same strategy of transforming its HFC network into a two-way broadband network, in 1998 it began developing the country's first broadband Internet access service, launching it in 1999. That same year, UnitedGlobalCom acquired from Southwestern Bell and from Quiñenco (Grupo Luksic) the remaining 63% of the subsidiary VTR Cablexpress S.A, controlling 100% of the property and transforming the company into VTR Globalcom S.A.

In 2004, VTR launched its best-known promotion: the Triple Pack, changed its name to VTR Banda Ancha (Chile) S.A. and created the slogan Intégrate, be surprised.

In April 2005, VTR announced that it was completing its merger with Metropolis Intercom S.A. Prior to the merger, 50% of Metropolis was owned by Liberty Media International, Inc. (LMI) and the other 50% in the hands of Cristalerías de Chile S.A. (Glassware). At the end of that year, they began a white march process in the communes of Las Condes and La Florida to launch their digital TV service.

In exchange for its stake in Metropolis, Cristalerías received a 20% ownership of VTR and an option to require VTR's parent UnitedGlobalCom Inc. (UGC) to purchase its shares in the company at market price, with a minimum price of $140 million. This put option, payable in cash or UGC shares, could be exercised at any time between the first and tenth anniversary of the closing date of this transaction. For the contribution of LMI's participation in Metropolis, VTR recognized an obligation in favor of LMI valued at approximately $100 million. Additionally, UGC agreed with LMI that this VTR obligation will be transferred to the benefit of UGC if the integration of the UGC and LMI businesses, announced on January 18, 2004, does not materialize. UGC would pay for the transfer of this debt with 10 million Class A shares of UGC at $10 per share. As a result of the merger, VTR also assumed the debt that Metrópolis had with Cristalerías and LMI for a total value of approximately $21 million, and recognized a debt with its parent company, UGC, for an approximate value of $55 million.

In 2007, they launched the first HD channel in Chile (only available to digital television customers), whose name was Vive! HD. It was the first high definition channel in South America.

At present^[when?], VTR offers cable television, fixed and mobile telephony, internet and long distance services, as well as monitoring and Hogar Seguro, to a total of 800,000 clients from a large part of the country, being the second most important company in Telephone and Internet Services, behind Telefónica Chile.^{[citation required]} Its most important competitors are Movistar TV Digital, DirecTV Chile, Claro Chile, TuVes HD, GTD Manquehue and WiTV from Telefónica del Sur.

As of December 2007, VTR had coverage close to 90% of the entire country (TV), its participation in the pay TV business was 68% nationwide and it had a 20% participation in the business telephone and 35% in the Internet business. In February 2008, VTR carried out a massive change in its corporate image, changing its logo and its slogan, which reads: VTR, what we like about life.

On November 16, 2009, an agreement between VTR and Canal 13 becomes effective, where the company includes Canal 13HD, for its clients with d-Box Pro. To this, it is added that VTR had already added to the radios Play FM and Sonar FM, and the broadcast of programs from said channel on the On Demand system.

Digital television and the arrival of HD

On June 15, 2010, TVN HD began to be distributed after the controversy over the broadcasting rights of the state channel in high definition. It was only added to the grid of Santiago and Gran Concepción to avoid sanctions from Subtel. Because of this, TVN filed a civil lawsuit against VTR for distributing the channel without their permission. VTR argued that the permission had been granted by TVN in April 2010, however they withdrew at the last minute, possibly due to the agreement with DirecTV Chile and TVN for the exclusivity of the 2010 South Africa World Cup in HD.

On June 25, 2010, VTR and TVN reach an out-of-court agreement whereby the channel authorizes VTR to broadcast its signal in HD throughout the country and at no additional cost once the World Cup is over. In addition, it allowed the areas where the canal was operating to continue operating. An indemnity from VTR to TVN was agreed for an undisclosed amount. The agreement also included the distribution of the channel's content on its VOD platform.

On July 1, 2010, VTR proceeded to encrypt all national HD channels. Subtel required VTR to only leave the national channels exclusively to its contracted customers, largely due to the requirement of TVN^{[citation needed]} As of that date, neither Canal 13 HD nor TVN HD could be viewed using an American ATSC/QAM standard television. On July 19, due to customer complaints, VTR decided to back down and unencrypted Channel 13 HD, so it could be viewed on ATSC-standard televisions without the need for a decoder.

On August 1, the 24 Horas channel was added to the grid in all cities with only analog service available as part of the reparation that the company must make to TVN for the unauthorized use of TVN HD during the month of June, and its subsequent arrival on VTR's HD grid, nationwide.

In April 2012, it began rolling out its cell phone service. On May 16 of that year, VTR Móvil was officially launched in Chile. On January 31, 2015, as ordered by courts and at the request of TVN, TVN HD ceased to be available. On June 10, VTR re-enabled TVN HD on channel 707, this time with national coverage, for the transmission of the Copa América Chile 2015, for all customers with HD plans.

In August 2016, Turner Broadcasting System purchased 50% of the ownership of the CNN Chile channel from VTR, completing 100%.

As of the fourth quarter of 2020, VTR had 1,060,000 subscribers, equivalent to 32.5% of the pay television market in the country.

Disputes

Internet service

The Internet service is frequently criticized for Internet access regulation measures (Traffic shaping) exercised by the company, which is demonstrated in the fact that VTR acquired a Nortel device (SHASTA 500).
VTR now provides a cache for popular content transmitted by both peer-to-peer networks, video sites like Youtube and web pages, which works transparently for customers.
In 2012, Subtel ordered VTR will lower the price of the plan according to the speed it actually offers, so the company suffered a severe setback. The case became known for being the first in which the neutrality law came into effect.

Censorship

Throughout 2005 and into early 2007, VTR continually censored Cartoon Network's animated segment Adult Swim, as according to their observations, Cartoon Network should be an entirely children's channel; that is to say, it was not possible to incorporate series for the adult public in the channel. Those responsible for the signal argued that they had carried out a study, according to which the public that tuned in to Cartoon Network from 0:00 to 2:00 in the morning was mostly children (4-12 years old exactly) so it was impossible to place adult content in the late-night schedule. For this reason, the channel and the company agreed to broadcast Adult Swim on a separate signal, as if it were an independent channel. For this, it was necessary to have the premium decoder, since Adult Swim would be broadcast in replacement of the VTR movie channel. It was broadcast on channel 63, an alternative signal from the basic channel grid that worked only with a decoder, from 1:00 to 3:00 with repetitions. This motivated users to carry out campaigns against the company;^{[citation required]} one of them was "tega division", which, together with other pages, managed to get VTR to reintegrate the segment alluded to the screens in the original frequency.

In 2007, religious groups asked VTR to censor the MTV series Papavilla, even reaching judicial instances in which VTR was favored, thus finally broadcasting the TV series.

Service coverage

Since the merger between VTR and Metropolis, inhabitants of the communes of Santiago, Renca, Curacaví, Lo Espejo, Cerro Navia, Lo Prado, La Pintana, San Ramón, La Florida, Quilicura, El Bosque, Calera de Tango, etc.. They have called for chain letters and complaints against the company, since none of its 3 services reach these places, which angers many people since the only option they have is Movistar for internet and telephone, causing feelings of discrimination, being which are communes of the Metropolitan Region, groups have been created referring to the issue, although there are already places in these communes that are being wired by the company, the idea is to expand its service to more customers and take advantage of the discontent that exists towards the services of Movistar, it must also face the onslaught of Claro in its attempt to cover more customers with its telecommunications services for the home.^{[citation required]}

Transfer of the Teletrak channel

Since February 3, 2009, followers of the horse race filed various claims against VTR for moving the Teletrak TV channel from the basic grid to that of d-BOX HD. After the claims, the channel had to put up a signal online in the sports section of the terra.cl portal.^{[citation required]}

Conflict with CDF for withdrawal of its signal

On February 4, 2010, after a failed negotiation attempt with the CDF channel, it disappeared from the grid, both the basic signal and the premium signal, placing a statement on said signals in which VTR held the channel responsible, when trying to increase its rate, by almost 100%, for the premium signal and almost 150%, for its basic signal, a condition to which VTR would not have accepted, eliminating its signals from the grid.

At that time, this caused complaints from several clients, who had contracted the CDF, in the premium plan, for this reason VTR opened free of charge, the Fox Sports signal during the month of February and CDF stopped charging from From that moment, those who had contracted both plans were also given the complete LAPTV pack at no cost in February.^{[citation required]}

In replacement of the CDF in its basic signal, the cable operator created the channel SED (Sala de Eventos Deportivos), which presented programming similar to that of the Vive! Sports, broadcasting some programs of this signal, archive of soccer matches from the time of VTR Cablexpress, and radio broadcasts of the matches, in cooperation with ADN Radio.

Finally, on February 9, 2010, VTR and CDF reached an agreement, replacing the usual programming; However, no specific details of this agreement are known.

Conflict with TVI Filmocentro for withdrawal of its signals

On February 23, 2016, the 22nd Civil Court of Santiago upheld the complaint filed by Filmocentro S.A., the company that owns Vía X, Vía X 2, Zona Latina and ARTV, thus definitively obliging VTR to keep them in its channel grid and in parallel, justice prohibits the cable operator from informing its clients to remove these channels from the grid, arguing that VTR "cannot carry out any material or legal act, which implies the termination of the transmission, of the television content of these channels", so the cable operator must mandatorily maintain the contract it has with Filmocentro S.A..

On March 9, VTR and Filmocentro S.A. suspended for 20 business days, the processing of a precautionary preliminary ruling and an arbitration procedure, in the context of the conflict arising from the withdrawal, announced on February 17 by the largest cable operator in the country, of the channels ARTV, Zona Latina and Vía X (in standard) and Vía X 2 (in HD). The agreement also contemplates the start of a negotiation between the parties, of a reserved nature and aimed at reaching an agreement.

On May 13, VTR confirmed that it will finally make effective the replacement of Vía X, Zona Latina, ARTV, and Vía X 2 (in HD), which will be replaced by the standard signals of Paramount Network, Sundance Channel and Nat Geo Wild and BBC Entertainment HD, respectively. As they explain, "the owner of the Zona Latina, Vía X, Vía X 2 and ARTV channels, rejected for the third time VTR's offer to keep in its grid of channels -at the same price-, the signals Vía X HD and ARTV".

On July 13, the 60th day, during the early hours of the morning, VTR withdrew the TVI channels from its schedule, being replaced by Sundance Channel, Paramount Channel, Nat Geo Wild and BBC Entertainment, respectively.

In 2019, the Supreme Court ordered VTR to reincorporate the TVI Filmocentro channels, for which, on August 16, 2019 at 01:00, it made the change and removed the channels América TV, Antena 3 Internacional (except its HD signal), TVE Internacional and El Trece Internacional HD.

Replacing other signals

AMC Networks International

On January 1, 2019, VTR retired the channels of AMC Networks International, among which were AMC, El Gourmet, Europa Europa, Film & Arts, Más Chic and Sundance TV. Upon its departure, these signals were replaced by Azteca Cinema, Atrescine, Atreseries, Mega Plus, Nick Jr., Cocina Viva, and the HD signals of Discovery Science and BBC World News. The departure of the AMC signals caused annoyance among the clients of the cable provider.

ViacomCBS

On April 17, 2020, VTR withdrew the channel from ViacomCBS Networks Americas, whose channel is VH1, being replaced by Disney XD and 13C respectively, in addition to the channels MTV Dance, MTV Hits, VH1 Mega Hits, MTV Live HD and VH1 HD, which caused annoyance among viewers.

NBCUniversal (and its subsequent return)

On June 30, 2020, VTR retired NBCUniversal International Networks channels, including Universal TV, Universal Studio, and Syfy, to be replaced by Comedy Central, History 2, ETC, Mega Plus, and 13C (in Antofagasta). However, in March 2022, it was announced that Universal TV, Studio Universal and Syfy will return to the provider's offering.

Disney Media Networks Latin America

On February 1, 2022, the Star Premium channels close their broadcasts

On March 31, 2022, VTR will withdraw several channels from Disney Media Networks Latin America, due to the announcement of the cessation of broadcasts of some of these, by the Disney Group (mainly due to the factor of Disney+ and Star+ Streaming). The signals that will be withdrawn are Star Channel, FX, Star Life, FXM, Disney XD, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Nat Geo Kids and Cinecanal (this last channel still exists), being replaced by the signal package of NBCUniversal International Networks (Universal TV, Studio Universal and Syfy), which return to the cable operator, in addition to the channels Rec TV, Mega Fiction, DreamWorks Channel, Food Network, Love Nature and Senpai TV. The new channel, Docu, also entered.