Argentina's Cable TV counts its blessings (and troubles).

At Jornadas, the trade convention for Argentina and Latin America's Cable TV industry held in Buenos Aires last month, cablers vehemently defended their right to "live long and prosper." The event, which was organized by the ATVC (Asociacion Argentina de Television Por Cable) and CADiSSa (The Argentine Chamber of Satellite Signal Distributors), attracted 3,297 participants.

Though the convention caters to Argentina's cable community, this year there was an increased presence amongst participants from Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador as well. "Through the years, Jornadas has increased the participation of programmers and cable operators [from the region]," commented Pablo Zehle of Televisa's Visat.

In addition to visiting with exhibitors, attendees took part in technical and general conferences where the future of Argentina's cable industry was discussed in great depth. At a conference entitled, "Competition, Utilities and Convergence: Alternative Telecommunication Networks," Osvaldo Nemirosvci, a deputy in the Argentinean House of Representatives, urged postponing convergence, claiming that the "effort made during 40 years by the pioneers of cable TV must be defended" from Telcos and utility companies that provide broadcasting services.

At the opening ceremony of the convention, Julio Barbaro of Comfer (Argentina's Federal Broadcasting Committee) spoke about the intentions of many Telcos' to provide cable and broadcasting services by adding the cable networks onto their services. He also urged cablers to remain autonomous and veer away from becoming add-ons to other services.

When asked about the state of the cable TV industry, Visat's Zehle said, "It is actually a stable and continuously growing market." He recognized that, "piracy is a problem [for] the whole sector throughout Latin America, and it is important [to] treat [it], and to find a way to stop it."

Zehle pointed out, however, that Jornadas also reflected the positive, rather than negative, aspects of Argentina's cable industry. "fit went] successfully," he said. "Every year, the cable operators prove more interested in Televisa's signal, which is why we included our newest movie signal, Cinema Golden, [this year], making our package complete."