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 ori
media’s business rational is
focused on the genre of telenovelas –but
engaging in all possible activities of the
genre. In this case: producing, distributing,
TV channels and merchandising –all of
telenovelas.
 From
its very rewarding business model in Israel,
Dori Media has developed its international
strategy of a network of dedicated telenovela
channels, which the company has started to
implement in Asia with the introduction of
its channel in Indonesia.
The channel is to be carried by the Indovision
satellite platform, as one of their leading
channels. It is to be completely dubbed to
Bahasa Indonesia and has already signed agreements
with almost all suppliers to acquire rights
to the best telenovelas around. “Indonesia
is a savvy market, exposed to telenovelas
for many years, and the audience is very discerning,”
says Nadav Palti, President
and CEO of Dori Media. “We have to make
sure that the quality of the channel surpasses
anything they have seen so far. A dedicated
telenovela channel has some advantages over
the broadcast channels,” he continues.
“Whereas the free-to air-channels can
include telenovelas in certain hours and in
certain quantities only, a dedicated telenovela
channel is expected to give the viewers several
chances to view each program and therefore
is much more user friendly.”
Dori media has gained its first international
footprint with its very successful youth telenovela
Rebelde way, produced in 2002/3 and
since then sold all over the world, both in
the original form and as format. Thereafter
it has produced 14 more telenovelas in Argentina
and in Israel and has amassed a library of
over 2,000 hours of telenovelas to be distributed
all over the world.
What does Dori Media plan for the future?
“In addition to enhancing our productions
(in 2006 Dori Media will produce 600-700 hours
in Argentina and 200 in Israel), we are determined
to continue to implement our business strategy,”
says Palti, “and form additional channels
in Europe and other appropriate regions under
our international brand. We believe in ourselves
and in our ability to execute what we planned.”
And when asked if he does not see any hardships
or obstacles Palti smiles and says “of
course there will be difficulties and obstacles.
If it was that easy everybody else would have
been doing it. We like challenges.”
We believe him.
 l
refugio, which will be broadcasted from
Monday to Friday at 7 pm in Canal 13, will
be oriented to the young audience of Dori
Media Contenidos in Argentina.
 Yair
Dori, owner of the company, confirms
the beginning of the shooting with the general
production of Celina Amadeo
that will be carried out by a staff of local
technicians and talents.
“We were previously involved in Rebelde
way 1 and 2, Floricienta 1 and
2 and Rincón de luz. Furthermore, in
Israel we have a producer specialized in the
genre that has already made two telenovelas
of this kind,” explains Dori. According
to the Argentinean-Israeli businessman, the
international distribution of the new show
is guaranteed: “There are many markets
interested in the product, even though we
are still negotiating and we haven’t
decided anything about any of them in particular
yet. Only after NATPE will we know which countries
will purchase it.”
We initially estimate it will last 135 episodes
of 48 minutes each. It is a production that
will involve over 200 people, including artists,
technicians and assistants, and the shooting
will be on location and in Central
Park Studios, in Buenos Aires.
The protagonists of El refugio are:
Piru Sáez, Jorge Maggio, Belén
Scalella, Francisco Bass and Fernanda
Neil, who will all lead a cast of
important figures. In Dori’s own words,
“the casting was based on their great
talent and potential to develop a product
that, besides generating job opportunities
for hundreds of professionals in Argentina,
will also allow them to become of international
renown.”
Merchandising,
a key factor in the business
The idea of El refugio came up over
a year ago, after the success obtained by
Erreway in Israel. The story is about five
youngsters with different personalities and
from different social classes, who struggle
to save an abandoned theatre, exercising their
great passion: music.
This product, having a similar style to Cris
Morena’s productions, will
be targeted especially to a young audience,
but it will also be directed to a broad market
that includes various ages.
Dori’s opinion is that the present boom
of telenovelas for young people is due to
the fact that they are aimed at a “faithful,
interesting public, capable of giving many
satisfactions regarding the business once
the show has been launched.”
The company is already preparing El refugio’s
merchandising, including, among other products
and services, compact discs, picture card
albums, clothes, and the various possibilities
currently available on the Internet and mobile
telephony. “The collateral business
turns the launching of a youth telenovela
even more interesting. According to the Americans,
the benefits from the products that derive
from this kind of shows represent seven times
the profits on its airing. And, if they are
very successful they can even make twenty
times what they have made with the show on
the screen,” states Dori.
Each episode costs around 20,000 dollars,
that is, about over 7,000 dollars more per
episode than the average of the local industry.
For the businessman, besides telenovelas for
young people, another genre that is doing
very well in the international market is that
of culebrones. “This is proved
by the fact that, during this year, we have
also taken part in Sos mi vida (with
Pol-ka, and starred by Natalia
Oreiro and Facundo Arana),
Collar de esmeraldas (with Ideas
del Sur), and Juanita la soltera
(once again with Pol-ka),” he states.
The
need to invest
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 According
to Dori, compared to the rest of the Latin
American markets, the Argentinean telenovela
is at the top regarding production costs,
technical capacity and talents involved. But
this does not happen in the investment area:
“Brazilians have a very expensive production,
they invest much more than us and can supply
themselves through local recouping, that’s
why everything their programs produce abroad
is pure profit to them,” he acknowledges.
In his opinion, “in Mexico and Colombia
investments are much higher than here. But,
anyway, lately Argentina has been positioning
itself better as far as telenovelas production
is concerned, and to a great extent we are
helping to strengthen our industry and make
it more relevant in the fiction world. We
are investing in Indonesia in order to have
our own platform, because we consider that
the Asian market is very interesting. We want
to have a thematic channel for telenovelas
in Jakarta, and upload it to the satellite
next March. We are also considering something
similar in Germany and France,” points
out the head of the company.
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