FEATURE8 July 2019

The perfect package?

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Features Impact Latin America Media

In Cuba, where internet access is limited, an analogue approach to content distribution has flourished in response to a desire for information and access to culture. By Flamingo’s Ingrid Recio Jiménez

Cuba-ingrid

For decades, Cuba has remained under a strict blockade from the rest of the world. A combination of the state’s historical monopoly on broadcast, lax copyright laws and limited internet access has turned the country into an analogue ‘on-demand’ market. This has created the perfect environment for alternative sources of information to grow.

The most significant of these is El Paquete Semanal (‘The Weekly Package’): a 1TB bundle of content, delivered weekly to 600, 000 subscribers, with the latest films, TV shows, magazines, documentaries, video games, mobile apps, and YouTube videos, all for $2. Completely offline, it’s delivered by being transferred onto customers’ hard drives.

Collated and distributed via an underground media-smuggling ring, El Paquete Semanal allows people without internet access to obtain information just days, or even hours, after it has gone online elsewhere in the world. Game of Thrones is back this April, and, as with all previous seasons, Cubans will be able to watch every episode just hours after ...