elenovelas arrived in this country a decade ago as an initiative of the Argentinian origin Israeli producer Yair Dori. The big surprise was when the Spanish language gave the touching opportunity to many Israeli people to meet again with their mother language, “the ladino*“. Although the phenomenon of the telenovelas success is world wide, this blood relationship to the language helped in such a success.


Argentinian production getting important

Argentinian telenovelas on Israeli screen became strong to its highest point with the creation of the thematic channel “Viva” (cable and satellite) in March 1999. At the beginning, the channel varied telenovelas with Soap Operas, but telenovelas quickly replaced American series due to the public preference to them. Three years ago channel Viva Platina appeared which only broadcasts telenovelas and short series in Spanish at weekends. Overall, Viva and Viva Platina broadcast 13 telenovelas and one short series. Moreover, Viva has broadcast since May last year a 10 minute program called Viva Plus produced in Argentina by the well-known journalist Laura Ubfal , who brought the format. It is directed to the Israeli public and introduces news and interviews with stars from the genre and it acts as an excellent means of artist promotion. As a consequence of the media growth, (more cable and satellite channels and a second private channel, the 10) the number of telenovelas on screen has doubled for the last two years. Early 2000 about 10 telenovelas were broadcast and today an average of 30 telenovelas on screen is kept.

	Silvana D’angelo, manager of TELEFE International, Yair Dori and Cris Morena, producers.

Amor a Primera Vista in Spanish

The cultural influence and the growing number of Spanish students is amazing and cultural centres all over the country teach it. At first, women were attracted with the child series Chiquititas and the youth Rebelde Way success from Telefe Internacional, Argentina, catalog. The first season of Rebelde Way started in September 2002 on Foxkids. Three months later, it went back to air channel 10. Chiquititas in its time as well as Rincón de Luz and Rebelde Way are the most seen series in the young category nowadays.


Controversy for teenage telenovelas

Rebelde Way’s first season arouse critics from parents, teachers and other sectors of society due to topics such as drugs, sexual relations, etc. On the contrary, this did not affect its popularity but it kept the topic on scene.


Spanish effects on local production

The warm welcome to Spanish led to extraordinary projects. Canal de los Chicos (cable and satellite) has produced a series for a year called Mi Amor and its name is kept in Spanish. They are 4 minute chapters with an elementary production broadcast before Rincón de Luz daily chapter, the three presenters (children) repeat a slogan “Only in Spanish”. Different commercial campaigns were organized and the prizes were visits to the studios where telenovelas were recorded in Argentina. Besides, some Chiquititas and Rebelde Way characters play in different television ads.


An irresistible love: stars and fans

Although Chiquititas and Rebelde Way changed stars admiration into a massive phenomenon, Gustavo Bermúdez, Andrea del Boca and Gabriel Corrado had visited their fans and worked in this country.
During the year 2002, after many years of violence in Israel, Chiqutitias actors, for the first time, were welcomed as kings and queens and shared the scene with Israeli actors having a special participation (in Spanish) in the local theatre version of Chiquititas. The casting “Who wants to be the Israeli Natalia Oreiro?” gathered 15,000 girls dreaming of an artistic career.


Music and merchandising highly developed

Other developed fields are merchadising and music that reach amazing sales figures. Muñeca Brava and Rebelde Way are present with characters’ images even in blankets, cushions, stationery, books, sweet things, etc. Latin music and dancing are in fashion and a CD was released with songs from telenovelas.


Israeli telenovelas?

What marked integration was the end of the Hebrew Lagahat Baosher, “Alcanzando la felicidad” – Israeli version of the Argentinian telenovela Mujer Comprada, and the first Israeli telenovela released in February 2001. Since this really successful experience, four telenovelas have been produced in the last three years with a 10% rating in cable television. Air channel 2 broadcast a comedy mocking “Betty, la fea”, which heads fiction rating by about 20%.
TVMAS follows telenovelas conferences held in the world and we covered the debate organized by Instituto Cervantes on Telenovelas last 17th of December. The complete debate is available in TVMAS magazine in Spanish because the word “telenovela” is part of the daily lexicon in Israel even in kindergardens.
Ines Weller is TVMAS correspondent in Israel and Israel “Rating” magazine journalist.

* (language spoken by Jewish families that arrived in Israel from Turkey, Greek, etc. that were originally from Spain)

TV Azteca´s programming to over 90 countries At the time TV Azteca from Mexico approached you, in 1994, to become its distributor, Comarex had only been involved with movies and animation. “We were approached by TV Azteca at the end of 1996, just when they had produced their first novela, Nada Personal. We decided to distribute TV Azteca's programs as we had a team had experiene in international distribution. We faced the risks of this new venture with great enthusiasm as the product that Azteca produced took 40% of market share from its local competitor. This was very important at the time when people said it was impossible to compete in Mexico. If TV Azteca's novelas were competing with local successes we had no doubt that internationally we would have similar or greater results. Also it was very important to consider that international advertisers take into account the Mexican telenovela to be a premium product, as American features films are”said Marcel Vinay, president of Comarex. How did your strategy change, if at all, once TV Azteca's product started to be accepted? How long was it before you began to sell products other than novelas? With time our selling strategy did not change. We continued having top quality programming, greater success stories in different parts of the world and best of all a fantastic loyalty and credibility from our clients. We began selling other Mexican products other than novelas in 1997 with Mexican soccer, and then it increased with the release of Lo que Callamos las Mujeres and has continued and progressed as we are also distributing formats. Now We sell TV Azteca's programming to over 90 countries. The biggest buyers of telenovelas are USA, Latin America, Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. Sales to the Middle East and African countries have been unstable due to the political, war and economic turmoil. In Western Europe (excluding Spain and Portugal) and other countries like Japan there is still some resistance to telenovela as there is some discrimination for its origin. We have no doubt that if these countries ever have air telenovelas they will learn that they will deliver high ratings, probably much higher than any of their other foreign programming. Reason being that relationships, love and intrigue have no nationality, culture or barriers. Selling formats How has the response been? Can formats translate in areas where novelas have been unable to sell, like the U.K., France and Japan? If so, why? The selling of formats has increased throughout the years. Currently we not only distribute novela, but also game-shows, drama series (Lo que Callamos las Mujeres) and reality formats. We are 100% sure that not only the formats can translate and succeed in the territories you mention, but basically any part of the world which can afford to have local quality productions. In the case of novelas and drama series, as I mentioned before relationships, love and intrigue have no nationality, culture or barriers. And this has been proven as TV Azteca novelas have achieved high ratings in different cultures. The proof of it is that telenovelas are aired in greater number of countries in comparison to different types and nationalities of series (comedy, drama, action, etc.), including even mayor studio series.