Movistar TV is a

subscription television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...

service operated by

Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

. Currently, the service is available in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Perú , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy fo ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. In

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, this service merged with the satellite platform

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

, resulting in a new platform called

Movistar+ Movistar Plus+ (formerly Movistar+) is the trade name of the subscription platform for digital television owned by Telefónica, which operates in Spain. The service is distributed via optical fiber and ADSL and as well as with satellites such as ...

History

The service was started as a commercial test pilot in the city of

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

in 2001 and later extended to some major cities such as

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in April 2004. In 2013, Movistar Imagenio was rebranded to Movistar TV. As of March 2006, coverage has yet reached the whole of Spain. Major cities and province capitals are covered, but not rural areas or minor cities. It is possible for users to check on-line if the service is available for their phone line on the Movistar website . The channel line-up includes some international English-language channels, such as

CNN International CNN International (CNNI, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel that is owned by CNN Global. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates with sister network CNN's national and inter ...

and

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...

. Additionally for certain channels, Movistar TV allows the viewer to switch instantly from the dubbed Spanish versions of foreign-made programs to the original-language version. This facility is available for many digital channels such as TCM, Calle 13, FOX and Disney Channel but not for national terrestrial/digital channels such as TVE, Antena3 or Telecinco.

Technology

The Movistar TV (then called Imagenio) platform is powered by

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a su ...

(formerly

Lucent Technologies Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies business u ...

) since 2006. Previously, Imagenio platform was an in-house development held by

Telefónica I+D Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

(the R&D branch of Telefónica). In 2006,

César Alierta César Alierta Izuel (born May 5, 1945) is a Spanish businessman, who was the chief executive officer and chairman of Telefónica S.A. from July 26, 2000, until replaced by José María Álvarez-Pallete in 2016. He guided the company through a s ...

(CEO of

) signed an agreement with

Patricia Russo Patricia F. Russo (born June 12, 1952, in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American businessperson. Russo is most widely known for having served as chief executive officer of Lucent Technologies, and its successor, Alcatel-Lucent, a large communication ...

(CEO of

at that time) for the Imagenio base-technology transfer. Since November 2007, Imagenio incorporated new features that allow the customer to have a truly TV 'a la carte': the services "Past TV," "Shift TV," "Rewind TV" and "Recorder Staff. " These services are made possible by a HD TV (High Definition Television) decoder with a hard drive of 160 GB, similar to

TiVo TiVo ( ) is a digital video recorder (DVR) developed and marketed by Xperi (previously by TiVo Corporation and TiVo Inc.) and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose fea ...

. "Past TV" is an exclusive service of Movistar TV, which makes it possible to access content broadcast up to seven days before, has been officially recorded by Imagenio without the client having to do anything. "Shift TV" is an option that allows users to stop live broadcast of any program from any channel, and then continue viewing. The service "Rewind TV," allows instant repeat of last minute broadcast of the channel, for example, to be able to follow since the beginning.

References

External links

Movistar TV Home Page
{{Spanish television stations Telefónica Television networks in Spain Companies established in 2013

History

Technology

See also

References

External links