Jose Marques de Melo (Methodist University of São Paulo)
Abstract: In Latin America at mid-century, the formal media of communication (press, radio, cinema) satisfied the tastes of the colonizing elites for European and American programming, while the informal types of communication (songs, dances, poetry) remained faithful to indigenous local values. In the 1970s, the extension of broadcasting systems created a demand for popular cultural programming. There was also an increase in the regional exchange of programming between Latin American nations. Gradually, Latin American popular programs have begun to co-exist naturally with imported ones. Using Brazil as a case study, the article details some Brazilian networks' (Globo, Manchete, Bandeirantes) recent success as international exporters of popular genres (telenovelas, popular music), as Latin America begins to overcome its history of cultural dependency.

Résumé: En Amérique latine à mi-siècle, les moyens de communication formels (presse, radio, cinéma) répondaient aux demandes des élites métropolitaines pour des émissions européenes et nord-américaines, pendant que les genres de communication informels (chansons, danses, poésie) ont resté fidèles aux valeurs locaux et indigènes. Dans les années soixante-dix, l'extension des systèmes de radiodiffusion crée une demande pour des émissions culturelles populaires. Il y avait aussi une hausse dans l'échange régionale d'émissions entre des pays de l'Amérique latine. Graduellement, les émissions populaires de l'Amérique latine commençent à coexister naturellement avec des émissions importées. Prenant comme exemple le Brésil, cette étude démontre les succès récents de quelques réseaux de télévision brésiliens (Globo, Manchete, Bandeirantes) comme exportateurs internationaux des genres populaires (téléromans, musique populaire) pendant que l'Amérique latine commence à surmonter son histoire de dépendance culturelle.

The history of Latin American communications reveals a profound subordination to the cultural models transplanted by the Iberian colonizers. This was an elitist system, constructed to serve the interests of the governing minority which benefited from the potential of the press--books, periodicals, and newspapers--and the richness of artistic events--music, dance, and theatre--to reproduce the patterns of communication and culture prevalent in the Spanish and Portuguese royal courts. In Latin America, however, the intellectual isolation of the elites allowed for the development of a vibrant popular culture, forged from the existing indigenous civilizations and mixed with those of the manual labourers brought from Africa, Asia, and other parts of Europe. To disseminate this mixed culture, the impoverished masses of our continent created original models of popular communication, preserving their own ethical and aesthetic values.

Until the middle of this century, the Latin American systems of communication stagnated. The formal networks of communication (press, radio, and cinema) met the expectations of the elites and inspired models of metropolitan (i.e., European and United States) hegemonic control. But the informal types of communication (songs, dances, poetry, and satire) remained faithful to popular values, resisting external dependence and consolidating national or regional patterns of communication.
With the introduction of electronic communications systems, and the beginnings of a mass broadcasting audience, came the inevitable search for the roots of popular culture and a surge of typical programming, where the national and the transnational, the mass and the popular, were mixed. Gradually, the Latin-Americanization of our cultural industry manifested itself, co-existing naturally with products imported from other regions.

There was also an increase in regional exchange, creating a Latin American common market in cultural products. Recently, production companies of genres legitimized by mass culture (especially telenovelas and popular music) have been starting to compete on international markets and to project Latin American values on the global scene. From a continent that was exclusively an importer of consumption goods and lifestyles, Latin America is now becoming an exporter of information and leisure, and is starting to overcome its history of cultural dependency. These new symbolic flows--south-north and south-south--are indicative of Sean MacBride's vision: a new world information and communication order, less unidirectional and more balanced (MacBride, 1980).

Pointing to this emerging tendency, we will study the case of the Brazilian television industry, which has become a successful exporter of telenovelas to the whole world and especially to Latin America.

Television and national integration
When the military staged a coup in 1964 and assumed control of the government, Brazil was a cultural archipelago made up of semi-autonomous geographical regions, despite the terrestrial and aerial transport routes. During the development push of Juscelino Kubitschek, the National System of Mass Communication possessed mainly regional and local characteristics, except for weekly reviews and short-wave radio programs, which accounted for only a small part of programming. A major portion of the population lived in rural areas, and the cultural gap was worsened by a high illiteracy rate in and the precarious living conditions of the communities in the interior.

The cycle of modernization of Brazilian society, initiated by the authoritarian government of Getulio Vargas and continued by the populist governments of the post-war era, took on a new face with the junta after 1964. The junta assumed a liberationist posture, interrupting the almost-20-year experience with democratic government. They started a lengthy process of eroding national political institutions, starting with shutting down the existing political parties, seizing control of the unions, and perpetrating terrorism upon the intellectuals, the Church, and the universities. The military leaders adopted a centralized political model, suppressing the independence of the states which make up the Brazilian federation. They also created the means to attract multinational corporations and stimulate the national market through mechanisms intended to concentrate profit, which significantly increased the size of the middle class.

The television industry, introduced in Brazil in the 1950s but growing slowly, was restricting itself to the more populous urban centres. The creation of national factories to make inexpensive television sets opened up a consumer market. Thus, there were only 1.6 million television sets in use, inundated with signals from more than 10 stations broadcasting in the major centres. An elitist television predominated, with programming comprising films, animated series, and variety shows imported from the United States. There were some nationally produced programs, usually live broadcasts of interviews, news, sports, theatre, musicals, and the new genre of soap operas. This national production gained strength with the introduction of video tape technology, which eliminated the difficulties of live recording. VTR technology also favoured the dissemination of programs produced in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, headquarters of the parent companies of the networks being formed.

Telecommunications law initiated in the 1960s established a model including channels entirely dependent on the federal government. This facilitated the action of the military leaders, who understood the importance of this vehicle for the project of accelerated societal modernization, emphasizing national integration. Many resources were applied to the creation of a complete infrastructure, which initially comprised a microwave network complemented by artificial satellites. The production of indigenous programming was also encouraged, in part through restrictions on foreign ownership of communications companies, and in part by an ideology fostering national security, and emphasizing Brazilian cultural identity. In addition to exercising censorship powers, the military governments converted the state into the primary advertiser, subverting the increasing publicity campaigns of the multinational corporations.

Another factor which determined the nationalization of television production is undoubtedly the addition of new population groups to the television audience, quintupling the number of viewers in 10 years. This incorporation of a larger population stratum as consumers of televised cultural products obliged the branch stations to get in tune with the preferences of the masses. And so was initiated, for the many, a populist stage, marked by the rescuing of aesthetic patterns characteristic of circus humour, of the melodrama of the radio soap operas, and of the rites of folkloric manifestations. Gradually, television filled the void left by political inactivity, expelled from the national scene by the military regime. ``Telemania'' was incorporated into the Brazilian pattern of life, uniting families at home to enjoy the daily spectacle transmitted on the video screen. Aiming initiatives at the needy sectors of society, local governments installed televisions in public squares, democratizing access to growing national production, mainly telenovelas, sports, and variety shows.

In this way, television provided support for the legitimacy of the military government, which, through censorship of television news and interview shows, transmitted a nationalistic message throughout the country. The government-sponsored messages contained ingredients of xenophobia, patriarchy, and anti-communism. Recognition of our own reality in television, even though filtered through armies of censors, made a definite contribution to national integration, spreading among Brazilians a feeling of ``Brazilian-ness.'' At the start of the 1980s, there were already 20 million television sets in use in Brazil, with a penetration rate of 73% in urban residences. By the early 1990s, this number increased to approximately 30 million, with an overall national penetration rate of 65%. Evidently, there is a higher concentration of television viewers in the southern and southeastern regions of the country. These are the richest and most densely populated areas, having received most of the internal immigration from other regions of the country. It is important to note that today 70% of the Brazilian population lives in urban areas, and television has certainly replaced print as the way to educate these displaced masses, helping them adjust to new living arrangements, find work, and improve their lot.

Conquering foreign markets

The consolidation of the Brazilian television industry was accomplished in the 1980s, when the branch stations absorbed a major part of the advertising market. In the early 1970s, advertiser-funded television accounted for something like 25% of programming, increasing to 62% 20 years later. These figures reflect the explosion of the viewer market, which increased by almost 20 times in those years. Naturally, advertisers began to prefer this new medium for delivering their messages, as it allowed them to reach a national audience of almost 100 million potential consumers for their products. It must be observed that this audience seduced by television was not restricted to consumers but, above all, receivers of political ideas or behavioural models. For this reason, the major Brazilian advertisers are state-owned corporations or sub-governmental departments.

One peculiarity of Brazilian television is its great potential for disseminating advertising. According to current legislation, ads can only take up 15 minutes for each hour of programming. Nevertheless, stations instituted a type of underhanded advertising--``merchandising''--which creates a vehicle for commercial products in any program, increasing the rate charged to sponsors. Therefore, while the viewers are enjoying a telenovela or a musical show, they can be assimilating subtle advertising messages because the actors, singers, or presenters are exhibiting the products they are using during the show.

This capture of growing resources motivated the corporations to upgrade program quality. The first company to advance this view was the Globo Network, which started in the television production business only in the 1970s, on the strength of having been granted a channel by the government a few years earlier. This coincided with the decline of the Tupi Network, created by Assis Chateaubriand, the pioneer of Brazilian television. Chateaubriand's multimedia business--Periódicos e Emisores Asociadas (Associated Periodicals and Stations)--had a hegemonic place in the panorama of national television. The strategy adopted by Globo, which belongs to a family which holds a solid position in the journalistic market of Rio de Janeiro, was to search the international market for a company capable of supplying its managerial and technological needs. Because of the constitutional impediment to foreign involvement in the communications sector, Globo signed a co-operation agreement with the multinational Time-Life. The agreement was declared illegal, after much debate in the national assembly. But while the debate was taking place, Rede Globo absorbed an efficient administration, good technology, and, more importantly, learned how to produce programs like those being exported by the United States to the rest of the world.

During the 1970s, this business turned the national market around, creating a network of affiliates, to whom Globo sold its prime-time programming. Realizing that viewers preferred telenovelas, Globo started competing with the paulista (i.e., of or from São Paulo) stations, which held the largest audiences for this genre. In the first stage, the Globo network contracted the services of foreigners, among whom were the Cuban Gloria Magadan, a producer of telenovelas exiled in Miami; the Panamanian Homero Sanchez (who specializes in market research and motivational studies); and the American manager, Joseph Wallach. Later, they conscripted national talents who were known for their work in radio, theatre, music, and advertising. People like Janet Clair and Dias Gomes (dramatists); Walter Clark (advertiser); Chico Barque, Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil (musical composers); Fernanda Montenegro, Paulo Autran, and Mario Lago (actors) were all members of the cast. They also have contracts with young artists, many of whom come out of the popular cultural movements, persecuted by the military government for being leftists, who discovered the impact of disseminating cultural works in tune with the demands of the working classes.

It was not difficult for the Globo network to consolidate the success that has guaranteed it hegemony in the national television industry during those decades. Globo's formula was very simple--it is a combination of North American managerial and marketing strategies; the artistic creativity of Brazilian intellectuals, almost always based on popular movements; and the efficiency of producers from the electronic media, the advertising or film industries, but recycled with foreign advisors. Additionally, the political will of the company to invest heavily in technology and research, to attune itself to the technical innovations and the aspirations of the average consumer, is included in the strategy. Naturally, the support of the military government was instrumental. This support was assured to Globo, since the company was owned by a communications conglomerate clearly opposed to trade union populism and autarchic nationalism--hallmarks of the Brazilian political scene in the era after the Second World War.

With the difficulties encountered by Globo's competitors--a mix of financial crisis and bitter fighting between the successors of the pioneers of our television industry--the Globo Network filled all the available spaces, availing itself also of the telecommunications infrastructure constructed by the military. Globo's rise was meteoric, winning over almost 80% of the prime-time viewing audience and more than 60% of the total advertising revenues. This situation was one of a virtual monopoly in Brazilian television, granting enormous negotiating powers to Globo's owners, the Marinho family. The Marinhos own a holding company which controls more than 100 businesses throughout the country, 110 television stations, a radio chain, magazine and book publishing companies, record companies, and other varying commercial, industrial, and financial undertakings. Their market power was so strong that the military government took the initiative to stimulate competition in the national market by forming the SBT and Manchete networks.

But it would take almost 10 years before the competing networks chipped away at the Globo monopoly. These competitors took advantage of the flank opened in the national scene, when Globo took on the foreign market, with great success in selling telenovelas, series, musical, children's, and sports shows. In addition to exporting programs to more than 130 countries, Globo operated TV Monte Carlo, aimed at the Italian market, and took part in co-productions with foreign companies, public or private, in the areas of television and popular music.

Particularly in the area of telenovelas, shown to be a creative stronghold of Globo, the latest productions are repetitions of the formulas which proved successful in recent years. The preoccupation with the foreign market led to a certain inattention to the national market, which allowed the competition to mount an offensive. The Manchete network exploited ecological themes and rediscovered the power of regional cultures and landscapes, particularly in those areas endowed with beautiful and primitive geography. For its part, SBT made a play for audience segmentation, importing Mexican telenovelas (produced by Televisa) and conquering parts of the children's market and sections of the popular sector which remained faithful to classic melodrama. There is also a resurgence of public television, primarily TV Cultura of São Paulo, which is slowly improving program quality, importing quality European and North American shows, and meeting the demand of certain sectors of the middle class who are dissatisfied with the typical pattern of commercial stations, for example, the student youth.

So we have, today, a healthy competition between the national television networks, each one looking to define its own niche in the market. In 1991, there were 229 stations, divided among five national networks: Globo with 78, SBT with 45, Manchete with 38, Bandeirantes (Marinhos-owned) with 32, and Educativas with 21. Additionally, there are 15 independent stations. These figures have changed slightly since the introduction in 1992 of the first network based outside of Rio or São Paulo: the OM Brasil Network, headquartered in Parana, with 20 affiliated stations.

Evidently, the Globo network continues to meet the preferences of the majority, in part because the assault of its competitors forced it to review its market strategies. Without discounting the foreign market, mainly in Europe (which is starting to be supplied through co-productions with Spanish, Swiss, and Portuguese companies), Globo has sophisticated national productions awaiting the verdict of the viewers. In a sense, one can say that the genre of the telenovela is being neglected in the attempt to rescue the uniqueness of Latin American melodrama, without sacrificing technical quality, speed of action, and erotic or landscape appeal. In addition, the attempt is being made to regain the pulse of the viewers' daily lives, while validating the different regions.

In addition to Globo, two other Brazilian networks--Manchete and Bandeirantes--are players in the foreign markets, exporting primarily to the other American countries. The possibilities for trade are becoming more attractive with the formation of the Mercado Commun del Cono Sur (Common Market of the Southern Cone), which started operations in 1993. The agreement includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The regional corporation Brasil-Sur, which owns a chain of local stations in the border areas between these countries, is showing much interest in exploiting the potential of this new market that is about to open for cultural and information trade.
On the other hand, opportunities are opening up in the Brazilian market for the importation of programming from other countries in the region, insofar as Latin American cultural industries apply production initiatives aimed at export markets, adopting aesthetic codes capable of being decoded by more discerning viewers. Until now, the imports to Brazil have been limited to popular types of programming. The SBT network, which made tentative moves towards the production of tear-jerker telenovelas, in the conventional Latin American vein, has been importing Televisa productions since last year, and showing them during prime time. However, it looks as though SBT is disposed to start Mexico-Brazil co-productions. On its end, the new network Brasil OM is starting to import Argentine telenovelas.

Exports for the Latin American market

The Brazilian presence on the international television market dates back to 1975, when the Globo network exported its first telenovela to Portugal. The success of this adaptation of author Jorge Amado's Gabriela with Portuguese viewers caused the corporation to realize the potential of the South American market. The second telenovela to be exported was O Bem Amado, written by Dias Gomes, dubbed into Spanish, and sold to an station in Uruguay. This was also a success.

These initial probes revealed the potential for exploiting a new market, but there was one obstacle. The cost of dubbing by a Venezuelan company was very high--something like U.S.$150,000 per telenovela. Sales operations for other Latin American countries indicated that the return on investment was insufficient, recouping little more than the cost of the dubbing.

Therefore, the corporation decided to increase its foreign trade, adopting an economy-of-scale strategy, much like the approach of the American companies in the 1950s. Wherever Globo's product were shown, they were incorporated into the viewing habits of local audiences. This gradually won loyalty influenced the fixation with the Globo products, generating a mid-sized constant sales flow. And the return on investment was impressive: in 1977, Globo was making a profit of U.S.$1 million from the exporting of telenovelas. By 1985, that figure increased to approximately $15 million, and has recently reached the level of $20 million a year. This is a small portion of the total profits of this conglomerate, which are in the $700 million range.

Undoubtedly, the expectation of future profit is a determining factor in the interest in foreign markets. Recently, Globo spent close to U.S.$45 million to build a studio set aside for export productions. This industrial complex covers 38,000 square metres in the Jacarepagua region of Rio de Janeiro.

The other Brazilian networks are also looking to the foreign markets. The Manchete network got a good reception for telenovelas in the U.S. Latin market. Dona Beija was broadcast during prime time in 1991 by the Spanish-language Univision network. It was seen by a good-sized audience by American standards, getting a 12-point share in Los Angeles, 9 in Miami, and 5 in New York. Making a return of approximately U.S.$7 million for exhibition rights in the North American market, the network is now concentrating its efforts on the U.S. and European markets, with slow short-term financial returns compared to the $250 million average profit for the exhibition of the same telenovela in Latin American countries. Undoubtedly, the success of these products on the Latin American market alerted North American Hispanic broadcasters to the possibilities of airing telenovelas.

Meanwhile, the Bandeirantes network, which had successfully exported the telenovela Os imigrantes to other Latin American countries years before, was starting to produce mini-series with the intention of exporting them to Germany, Portugal, and Venezuela.

The Latin American market was still being served almost exclusively by the Globo Network, which was exporting to 20 countries in the region on a regular basis, offering an average of four telenovelas per year. In the European market, the sales figures were higher, say, about U.S.$9 million per episode sold to Germany. In the regional market, however, prices varied and programs were often offered at a reduced price. There are hints that El Salvador paid only U.S.$150 per episode, while in Uruguay the price was U.S.$350 per episode.

This is explained in part by the reduced financial capabilities of the countries with small markets, but it also reflects the ferocious competition with the cultural industries of Mexico and Venezuela, which are able to undercut costs as a result of having lower production costs because they do not need to dub their shows. While in Brazil Globo spends $30 million per episode (this figure was higher in the past, surpassing $100 million per episode in the ``super-production'' type of telenovelas), in Mexico Televisa spends a mere $5 million per episode of a normal telenovela, and up to $20 million per episode for the glitzy telenovelas, like O Pecado de Oyuki. This last telenovela's story took place in Japan, and the production company had to construct special sets and wardrobes, in addition to the usual cost of equipment and actors. Another expensive Mexican production was Sendas de Gloria, a reconstruction of various episodes from Mexico's history, including some very elaborate battle scenes.

In any case, the prices charged by the Brazilian company in the international market are more competitive than those charged by North American companies. The exhibition rights to a Globo telenovela (with at least 120 episodes) is one third the cost of a North American series (with an average of 20 episodes). The difference is that North American exporters, on the strength of past exports, have captive audiences and large stocks of programming. Latin American producers, on the other hand, are just starting to contend for parts of this market, with smaller stocks, and the need to have attractive prices to make sales in the short term.

In accordance with increases made by the three Brazilian exporters of telenovelas, Globo is maintaining a steady flow of products to the Latin American market. This market does not include just the countries traditionally identified as Latin America, but also the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian population segments in North America--both the U.S. and Canada.

To conquer the Latin American market, Globo has been working hard for the past 15 years, adopting marketing strategies which assure it a privileged place in the regional television industry.

But the flow of Brazilian television fiction to Latin America is not limited to products no longer shown by stations in Brazil. The pattern of programs, production pacing, and artistic quality of the shows are being noticed by producers in other countries who would like to learn from the Brazilian model to develop their own industries.

As such, Brazilian teleplay writers are being contracted by other countries to write the scripts for local productions, or for those destined for the international market. One example of this is Manuela, written by Brazilian Manuel Carlos, co-produced by an Italian-American company, and successfully distributed in both Europe and the Americas. Brazilian expertise is also being sought in children's programming. The show Xou of Xuxa, which gained popularity on the Globo network, now has a Spanish version, which is produced in Argentina and exported to 16 countries, conquering the hearts and minds of children in the entire region and bringing in more than U.S.$1 million a month to the Brazilian performer. This does not include the royalties from merchandising products.

Another form of export which is gaining momentum is the sale of telenovela scripts by Brazilian writers, which are then adapted by young writers in the importing countries and produced by local actors and directors in a local setting. Chile has opted for this type of stimulation of its television drama industry, having bought the adaptation rights for many telenovelas written by Janete Clair, Ivani Rebeiro, Lauro Cesar Muniz, Walter Negrao, Casciano Gabus Medes, Braulio Pedroso, Gilberto Braga, Chico de Assis, and Silvio de Abreu. These countries are taking the same path that Brazil took in the 1950s and 1960s, when it bought scripts from Cuba, Mexico, and Argentina.

Brazilian television drama is gaining international repute as a result of the creativity of its writers, performers, producers, and distributors. But this reflects primarily the audacity of undertakings of the Third World, which, as characterized by Armand and Michele Mattelart (1987), is searching for more balance in the global flow of information and culture, a utopia bequeathed by Sean MacBride on new generations of intellectuals (MacBride, 1980). This segment of the symbolic goods industry accounts for royalties of approximately U.S.$100 million per year to Latin America. More important is the place it gives to our cultural identities on the global stage, and the confidence it inspires in our national populations, inducing them to discover themselves as diverse and powerful, capable of forging their own roads for development of their society, mixing traditional and modern elements, reason and passion, preservation and pride.

Acknowledgment
Thank you to Aviva Farbstein for the translation of this article.

Note
1
The author would like to thank researchers Gloria Kreinz and Mauro Alencar of the Núcleo de Investigación de las Telenovelas of ECA-USP for their help in collecting data and editing this section.

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