Comedy and drama series are topping programming schedules

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The successful return of series

They went through a period of stagnation and devaluation. They were overshadowed by realities and telenovelas, which took over several slots in the programming schedules from all over the world. Today, series are recovering their place in the market again making a bigger and bigger impact and captivating large audiences.

 

Angel Orengo is Distribution VP at Sony Pictures Television for Latin America and the Caribbean. In the context of  Los Angeles' LA Screenings he had an extensive chat with this magazine, where he explains enthusiastically that there are several factors that have favored the big reappearance of the series on the screens worldwide. "One of the reasons is that the market of realities is declining. Another one is that there were very strong series that helped gaining slots. Before, everybody was waiting for the 'reality of the moment', and TV slots are limited," he states.

"At the end of the day, audiences decide and, eventually, the production being already settled and having an important audience won the competition." - Angel Orengo.

It was also caused by the fact that many series were not appealing to the audiences. What was happening with series?

Consumption had dropped. Nobody would buy them. So, the people having good and new ideas would "keep" them because they didn't want to launch them at a time when they wouldn't be sold correctly and were doomed to disappear. This is one of the industry's challenges caused by the high costs of developing a series. An expert in the field, Orengo realizes that in sales it is essential to know the direct competitors almost better than ourselves. Therefore, sincere, he does not hesitate to recognize that "unfortunately" last year the spectacular series Kidnapped, on which Sony bet the maximum, lost in the ranks to the powerful ABC's production Desperate Housewives. "At the end of the day, audiences decide and, eventually, the production being already settled and having an important audience won the competition," he admits. "But this year we came back really powerful," he emphasizes. In 2007, Sony presented eight pilot programs, five of which he says "have aroused networks' great interest."

Incursions in telenovelas
The executive maintains that Sony does not wish to "take the leading position" in the telenovela field "because there are already great established producers and distributors and it's very difficult to compete against such representatives of the business." However, the company has developed the version of El Zorro in co-production with Telemundo and RTI.

What was the audience's response to it?
Well, we should speak about each individual market because there have been many different experiences. In Panama it was really successful. And in Argentina, it has the highest rating ever in a telenovela slot on a channel like Telefe. Nevertheless, it hasn't been so triumphal in other countries.

Making the most of a product
Having an integrated business that allows product export is the key. If a canned product is successful, it will almost certainly sell as a format. They did it with The Nanny. The original series was worn out and stopped triumphing the world over, thus appearing the local adaptations, which broke audience records.

Teamwork
No doubt the format boom has finished with the separation between departments in companies. "We're working the production area and the distribution or licenses area together. We also have a content division for mobile telephony, which reports to me, since we long to exploit every product platform," explains Orengo. Besides, the executive states that they are working day after day in pursuit of the unification of advertising goals with the company's channels "in order to present our clients with a better offer." After a rich and extensive chat, Orengo states that the key to succeed in the industry is the same as usual: "to develop good programs and offer programming solutions." Among them, "movies continue to be an important element," he admits, but he gets carried away and concludes: "Series and original productions are becoming a very strong boom in Latin America."