The new Claxson, post-surgery.

Buenos Aires-based multimedia provider Claxson has had a very hectic year since deciding to sell seven of its 12 channels--Fashion TV, HTV, Infinito, I.Sat, MuchMusic, Retro and Space--to Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System last December. While the two companies have agreed upon a $235 million price tag for the transactions, they are awaiting final approval by the Argentine government. Meanwhile, Claxson, which is mainly owned by Venezuelan conglomerate Cisneros Group of Companies (in addition to Texas-based investment fund Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and various other investors), has already announced two new ventures: basic cable channel Lifestyle and online video portal Mixplay.

In order to retain its reputation as a high ratings-getter, Claxson will stick to what it does best--appealing to youth and young adults. The company is hoping this will be achieved by way of a cable channel. "Lifestyle, a joint venture between Claxson and Playboy TV Latin America & Iberia--itself a joint venture between Playboy Entertainment Group and Claxson--is the first non-erotic [and non-scrambled] channel from Playboy. It is designed to showcase different types of lifestyle programming, including tourism, fashion, entertainment, technology and cars, among other things," said Mariano Varela, general manager of Playboy TV Latin America/Iberia and evp of Claxson's pay-TV group. Claxson has been in the process of launching the channel for over two years, and the company conducted its fair share of market research in that time. "Our schedule consists of almost 40 percent original material, which has a Latin American touch without losing its worldwide appeal and universal point of view," Varela said.

As to what types of programming the channel will acquire, Varela said he is open to a range of topics. "I know we're competing against various channels aiming at the same target. We will no doubt compete with strong channels like Sony, E! Entertainment or Fox Life," said Varela.

Before launching on September 30, Lifestyle was available on a trial basis for more than three months while deals were sealed with the region's main cable operators. Though it results from an association between Playboy TV Latin America and Claxson, Turner handles ad sales, and sells the channel to cable systems and DTH platforms.

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On the other-hand, Claxson's digital platform ESDC, which handles all things related to broadband and the Internet, created Mixplay (www.mixplay.tv), a video-based entertainment website that targets Spanish-speaking users. Backed by Microsoft and Intel, Mixplay looks to satisfy the demands of users who wish to watch professionally produced content online. The site distributes and sells videos protected by the Digital Rights Management system.

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Mixplay is one of only a few online video stores approved by Microsoft for Windows Media Player. When launching Windows Vista, Microsoft included Mixplay in its Media Center, enabling users to navigate the portal by means of a remote control. Users benefit from all the operating system has to offer by being able to connect their PCs to TV sets.

"This audiovisual content site is having great reception from users in Latin America," said Patricia Tomasini, Marketing and Production manager at ESDC. "We've got more than 500,000 unique users [ed. note: EDSC wouldn't clarify whether that was per month or total] who have access to a catalogue of more than 1,000 videos. We're adding more clips, we're setting new content alliances with other companies and increasing our monthly quota. We look forward to increasing our video distribution, both for free access and content sale through pay-per-view or Internet subscriptions," she said.

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But Claxson representatives declined to divulge specifics about their financials, including the money they're investing in programming, so many details remain up for discussion.