Telefe Expands its Presence Worldwide

What are the most important American and non-American markets concerning the sales of your telenovelas?

The world as a whole is a very important market for us. The values and conditions we deal with vary from territory to territory, and even if the volume, plus the value per episode makes such regions more economically attractive, our presence in smaller markets is also key.

These are the variables in Latin markets and in Eastern Europe, where our presence is stronger and where our main source of revenues lie (Around 80% of the area revenues). Western Europe is another promising market that has been steadily opening to Latin products and trying out more alternatives, not only on the air, but also through content platforms. The growth of digital TV is helping the process, thus content demand, which benefits Latin distributors in the long run.

Can you name your titles that had strong performances in Latin America? And in t he US?

We have broadcast almost all content in Latin America (different genres), in every country and considering different variables: finished programs, production of our books via format sales and/or production services, plus our constant presence through the international signal. The Latin star by definition is the telenovelas, and we follow the same tendency as distributors. We can mention some titles such as "Wild Angel", sold to every single Latin American country including the American Spanish-speaking market with extraordinary results. "Tiny Angels" is another product that has left its mark, and in fact, the broadcasters' interest in the new 2006 season has once again underlined the success this program has, despite being in its 7th season. Other programs we can mention are: family series "Cartoon Family" (in high demand despite being a 1996 product; it is being rerun in several countries), the children's show "Soccerville", a teen program "Endless Summer", and telenovelas "Yago Pure Passion" or "Forever Julia" among others.

American air TV is a very difficult market for Argentinean finished programs. We have aired products such as "Savage Attraction" and "Wild Angel" on Telemundo, but our revenues now are based upon pay TV and the low power stations that have grown steadily in these last few months. A year ago, we only programmed family series on a low power station in Florida, and on Pay TV. Now we have around 10 telenovelas, 3 family series, and many miniseries and documentaries.

What titles do you currently have in production?

School starts in Mid-March in Argentina, and the TV season goes hand in hand with the school schedule. In fact, many releases are scheduled for April or maybe later. Very few titles are launched during the summer vacations, and those spaces are usually filled with reruns or alternatives to traditional telenovelas. We are currently closing the cycle and pre-producing 2007 releases, at least 4 telenovelas that will air on Telefe. We will bring two of those titles to Natpe: "Breaking Rules", which will fill the classic 2:00pm telenovelas slot, and "Teenangels", the new Cris Morena production, that deals with the story of a group of helpless teens and kids whose lives will be changed after the arrival of two interesting characters, that will help them form a music group.

As usual, we will have at least 4 miniseries and documentaries and entertainment programs, the return of "Susana Gimenez" to Telefe, among them. We also distribute material from independent producers such as "Romeo and Juliet", produced by Raul Lecouna, a teen version based upon Shakespeare's classic, which promises to be a true revelation for prime time on Channel 9. We will also distribute the sports program "The Sweeper", aired on ESPN and hosted by Quique Wolf, the new Roman Lejtman documentaries he will produce for America TV, and the series "Winds of Water "co produced by Telecinco and 100 Bares.

What are your plans for 2007?

Our greatest challenge is to exceed our own goals, that is the main objective on our long list. Basically, and judging from this excellent 2006, we can only hope that 2007 will be a very satisfying year regarding geographical expansion and positioning, strengthening our presence in those markets where we are already strong such as in Eastern Europe and Latin America, increasing our presence in the Spanish-speaking USA market, Asia and also to consolidate in Western Europe, taking advantage of this the opening of this market to Latin Products.

Regarding service expansion, we have created the business department: Telefe Mobil and we have had an amazing experience at a local level with this year's programs. We have pioneered viewer interaction through many of our productions and particularly with "Pirate Soul" (Produced by Cris Morena Group), "The Name is Love" and "Montecristo", which have obtained excellent results during 2006. Interaction from the website and mobile connectivity have had a response that even overcame technology, we are very proud of that. Trivia games, previews, episodes the viewers has missed, ring tones, wallpapers, contests...as usual creativity has no limits. Another one of our challenges is to move this expertise and know how from Telefe Mobil to the international market and that is what we are currently working on. Regarding derivate businesses, the idea is to deepen derivate businesses starting from the fiction we have developed from the production and programming area. "Tiny Angels", "Pirate Soul", "Romeo and Juliet", and "Teenangels" are the ideal platform, but also business alternatives stemming from programs such as "Montecristo" must also be taken advantage of.