TELENOVELA BLOCK.pages 24 - 30: - Discop

telenovela block
TELENOVELA IN THE CEE
- PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Are TV broadcasters and audience
in the CEE familiar with telenovelas
DISCOP LINK’s network of journalists
had researched the position of
genre in some countries of the region.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
“TV BIH FEDERALNA broadcasts
only on one channel and due to that,
only one term is provided for telenovalas.
We broadcast telenovelas THE
PEPPER AND THE CHOCOLATE every
working day at 5:30 pm. That part of
the program is well covered in the
marketing sense and is very attractive.
Second showing is at 9 am the following
day. When this serial is finished,
we will start broadcasting MEN
OF HONOUR,” says Tatjana Majhrov -
ski, Chief of Foreign Program.
In Banja Luka TV ATV, the number
of telenovelas is going to be reduced in
the next period. “We gladly broadcast
teenage telenovelas, such as STEP
FORWARD, “says Branko Lazic, one of
the owners. “On ATV, there are three
serials: THE COLOUR OF SIN broadcast
by GLOBO TV at 8 pm; THE
WOMAN IN FRONT OF MIRROR at 6
pm; and THE BRIDE’S VEIL broadcast
by TELEVIS at 4 pm. Researches show
that ratings and popularity are
decreasing; there are around 16
telenovelas that BIH audience can
watch. Telenovelas from domestic
productions have growing popularity, ”
added Lazic .
BULGARIA
Olga Lozanova, TV Programming
Expert, says for Discop LINK that
Bulgarian televisions have great interest
for soaps for three main reasons:
first, very low price; second, great
number of episodes that guarantee
the formation of a stable slot during
the broadcasting and, third, rating
maintenance that facilitates the sale
of advertising time.
The soaps almost always return
investments and bring the profit, since
the ratio price/popularity is very
favourable.
They are ideal “addition” to “out of
prime time zone” and generally, every
television is interested in them. Soaps
are something like “the blue litmus” in
complete program of media that
broadcast them – the greater the ratings
of TV, the better the soaps. They
can not be “rocket booster” that would
pull the media forward, but surely they
are “Oscar” winners for a supporting
role. There are, of course, “veterans”
that play the leading role in ratings of
some TVs, as is the case with the serial
THE ARROGANCE AND THE BEAU-
TY on Bulgarian National TV (BNT),
but this is an exception.
The interest for soap serials in
Bulgaria is stable and permanent, with
a mild increase being the result of
complete market development and
not the genre boom.
CROATIA
There are two telenovalas on the
Croatian national TV: LOVE HAS NO
PRICE and WORLD OF THE FAMOUS.
“As a public service, HRT has no much
space for telenovelas. There are two
telenovelas broadcast by TV: a
Mexican telenovela LOVE HAS NO
PRICE that is broadcast on HRT1 at
12:25 pm, and the serial THE WORLD
OF FAMOUS that is broadcast on
HRT1 at 9 am, and on HRT2 at 4:25
pm,” says for DISCOP LINK Ranka
Horvat, Foreign Programme Editor at
TV HRT, Zagreb. “We co-operate
exclusively with TV GLOBO, whose serials
are from the Mexican Spanish language
area, and TELEVIS from the
Portugal language area,” says Horvat.
CZECH REPUBLIC
“TV NOVA started broadcasting
telenovelas in the year 1999, to be
more precise, on February 1, 1999,”
says Veronika Smitkova, TV Nova PR.
“The first telenovela was such a success
that we removed it from early
afternoon hours to prime time. After
the ‘boom’ in the beginning, interest of
audience started falling and the tele -
novela lost its prime time in 2000.
Now we are fond of broadcasting
European telenovelas (of Russian and
German production), but, honestly,
telenovelas are not our priority. We
have maximum two telenovelas on our
program, and we broadcast them in
the early afternoon.”
GREECE
Telenovelas in Greece are in a
kind of a static situation. Currently,
only one station is broadcasting two
first run telenovelas in the late afternoon
slots, and another station is
broadcasting two rerun telenovelas,
also in the early afternoon slots.
The competition that telenovelas
face is intense as they run against
Greek reality and gossip shows, Greek
soaps and Greek rerun sitcoms.
Depending on their ratings and
other variables, we may see more
telenovelas in the near future as they
could be regarded as a low-cost programming
alternative appealing to
heavy TV viewers and could possibly
create viewers’ loyalty!
MACEDONIA
TV A1 continues the practice of
having at least three telenovelas during
a day. For some of the serials it is
very obvious that they are compensations
(provider leaves the broadcasting
to a TV station and receives advertising
time for their clients, in return),
which resemble a classic barter.
POLAND
Recently, national TVP achieved
the highest rating with 27%; TVN was
on the second place with 18.4%; and
POLSAT took the third place, with the
rating that was little lower.
“TVP presently shows just one
telenovela of foreign production, BOLD
AND BEAUTIFUL,” says Malgor Zapa
Cup, Acquisition Department at Polish
National TV. TVP prefers serials of
domestic production, such as ‘L’ FOR
LOVE that is broadcast twice a week at
8:05 pm, and has 10 million spectators.
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