Taking a look at the world
of telenovelas







The Egyptian
Television Market

s Director of this publication I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the most important event in Egypt: the Egyptian Television Market. It was held from 3 to 7 last July in a beautiful place in Cairo called October 12, very close to the imposing pyramids.
This great market event took place in an ambitious project called Audiovisual and Entertainment City. This Audiovisual City includes an enormous amphitheater in the open air, where they celebrated a welcoming party with the participation of the Minister of Economy and more than 800 people. This industrial complex is surrounded by hotels, with giant spas and large golf fields in the middle of the desert. And there, in one of the large rooms of the convention center, the event took place.
Our magazines TVMAS and ONLY TELENOVELAS, FICTION & FORMATS were present at this market, so we sized the opportunity to know more about this meeting and these countries. We could see that the participants could establish relations with the most important channels –producers above all– and closed deals. But at the same time, the exhibiting people complained about the excessive number of production and distribution companies present at the market and the short participation of TV channel representatives and buyers. That is a detail event organizers should bear in mind.
I would really like to mention that it was a great pleasure for me to find an Arabian entrepreneur’s stand where they offered telenovelas (Telemundo productions distributed by Tepuy). Through the different interviews conducted by our correspondents in the Arabian countries we could also find out that in Africa, Morocco, Qatar, Dubai and Tunisia telenovelas have had great impact on the audiences, affecting their everyday life, such as Kassandra. It was between 1996 and 1999 that telenovelas were at their height in the Arabian world. In the Golf area –one of the main markets of the zone– audiences receive these productions with great pleasure, and in Egypt they are entering the market but with some difficulties.

	Amanda Ospina

I offer you this large report on the history of telenovelas in the Arabian countries for you to know these markets reality through their entrepreneurs and executives.
Amanda Ospina.