Venezuelan cable TV provider Inter plans to focus on improving its offering of value-added service this year since local market conditions are not favorable for geographical expansion, a company executive told BNamericas.

With operations in at least 80 cities and a fully digitalized network, Inter can afford to perfect the more subtle aspects of operations, while other service providers must continue investing in expansion or modernization.

The chief priority for 2010 is to work with Venezuela’s currency exchange commission Cadivi to make HD set-top boxes more accessible to subscribers, said the executive, who asked not to be named. Today, the HDTV service, comprised of six channels, is available to approximately 50% of clients.

There is still scope for expansion of basic services, but Inter expects Cadivi’s budget restraints to be a limiting factor in this respect. In 2009 the pay TV sector’s growth rate fell to 19% from 22% in previous years, and Inter expects even slower growth this year.

Parallel to the emphasis on HDTV, Inter is also keen to upgrade its broadband offering with technologies like Docsis 3.0 or GPON, but is waiting for the trade and industry ministry MinComercio to authorize importation of the necessary hardware.

Inter currently has a 26% share of the country’s 2.4mn pay TV subscriptions, second to DirecTV, which has 1mn, according to Venezuela’s pay TV providers’ chamber Cavetesu. Inter chairman Eduardo Stigol has previously said he believes the company has a 70% market share outside Caracas.

The operator also has 180,000 broadband subscribers, 95% of whom are residential, and 75,000 telephony subscribers. On average, the 5% of clients that are corporate sign up for its fastest service, 2Mbps.

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