BUENOS AIRES -- Turner Broadcasting System has chosen Buenos Aires as its third international base to tap Argentina's low costs, strong talent and production houses.
TBS also will step up production and content development in Argentina, TBS chairman and CEO Philip I. Kent said after meeting Argentine President Nestor Kirchner in Buenos Aires.
Over the next two years, Atlanta-based TBS will assemble 700 staffers in Buenos Aires to program and transmit 48 pay channels and handle production of broadband, digital and mobile content as well as interactive games for distribution to Latin America and elsewhere, Kent said. The Buenos Aires office employs 200.
TBS already has bases in Hong Kong and London.
"While CNN and CNN en Espanol will continue in Atlanta, we are thinking of moving the technical and creative parts" to Argentina, Kent says.
TBS feevees include Boomerang, Cartoon Network, TNT and TCM Classic Hollywood, which are beamed to 85 million households in the region.
In December, TBS pacted with Buenos Aires- and Miami-based Claxson to buy Argentina's Imagen Satelital, which produces Fashion TV, MuchMusic, Retro and Space pay webs. They reach 51 million subs across Latin America.
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