TV Fiction in Argentina 2011

° www. comunicacionymedios.uchile.cl 168 Comunicación y Medios N 37 (2018) TV fiction in Argentina 2011 - 2016: state financing and the crisis of private production La ficción televisiva en Argentina 2011 - 2016: el fomen- to estatal y la crisis de la producción privada Ezequiel Rivero Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina [email protected] Abstract Resumen The production of TV fiction in Argentina, as el- La producción de contenidos de ficción en Ar- sewhere in the region, was historically charac- gentina, a partir de 2009, introdujo una novedad terized by geographic centralization in a few mediante un conjunto de planes de fomento urban centers. As of 2009, the National State público para la producción federal de conteni- introduced a disruption through a set of public dos, con el objetivo de diversificar a los actores promotion plans for the federal content produc- involucrados en esta actividad. El recambio en tion, with the aim of diversifying the players in- la conducción del Gobierno en diciembre de volved in this activity. The change in the Gover- 2015, modificó la lógica de estos planes de fo- nment’s leadership in December 2015 modified mento, dejándolos inconclusos. El objetivo de the logic of these promotion plans, leaving them este trabajo es producir conocimiento empírico unfinished. The objective of this work is to pro- e interpretaciones que permitan reconocer los duce empirical knowledge and interpretations logros y limitaciones de la intervención estatal that allow recognizing the achievements and en este mercado, en vistas a una evaluación de limitations of state intervention in this market, la política pública y su valorización como política in view of an evaluation of this public policy and industrial y cultural. Este trabajo sitúa la política its impact in industrial and cultural terms. This de fomento estatal en el contexto más amplio work frames the policy of state promotion in the de la crisis productiva que atraviesa la industria broader context of the productive crisis that the local de la ficción. local TV fiction industry is going through. Palabras clave Keywords Ficción; televisión; políticas públicas; audiovi- Fiction, television, public policies, audiovisual, sual; diversidad cultural cultural diversity Received: 22-01-2018/ Accepted: 14-04-2018 / Published: 30-06-2018 DOI: 10.5354/0719-1529.2018.48288 TV fiction in Argentina 2011 - 2016: state financing and the crisis of private production 1. Introduction 527 hours of local fiction and 1,662 of foreign169 fiction from Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Bra- The drop in production and broadcast of te- zil and Turkey (Aprea, Kirchheimer & Rivero, levised fiction from Argentina in the last years 2016). is the result of a combination of several factors. On one hand, the acquisition policy of Just before the crisis of private fiction, when a large number of foreign soap operas -par- fiction production was predicted to include ticularly Brazilian and Turkish- that achieved fewer and fewer players, the intervention of high audience numbers and very successfu- the State starting in 2009 introduced a series lly occupied prime-time slots on channels in of novelties, that, without altering the struc- Buenos Aires; in second place, the slow but ture of the market, meant the initial push sure movement of audiences towards other towards a larger federalization of production modes of exhibition like paid television or in- and diversification in the different stages of ternet-based services, that are added to the the value chain. audiovisual diet of viewers, compete for their attention, and challenge the business models Since that year, in the context of the laun- of different players of the value chain. A third ching of Televisión Digital Abierta (TDA) or component of the current fiction crisis in Ar- “Open Digital Television”, the State financed gentina, central to the purpose of this inves- the entire production and acquisition of au- tigation, is the public policy of audiovisual diovisual content, the majority being fiction, production promotion that began in 2009, by way of various contests. This promotion that strengthened the weak local industry, mechanism diversified the spectrum of com- and was substantially modified in the way it panies dedicated to fiction production and works starting in 20161. allowed provincial, college, public and private channels to include fiction content in their The local fiction crisis being reported from di- programming. Some of the content emerging fferent sectors2 is part of a larger issue in the from these contests showed disruptive aes- audiovisual sector. In a context of slow but sus- thetic proposals and included social issues in tained drop in open TV channel audiences and their plot that appeared less in privately-fun- the stagnation in subscriptions to cable TV, the ded fiction. strategy of TV channels tends to minimize or diversify risks, not only through outsourcing to From the beginning, state funding plans were independent production companies or co-pro- the object of criticism, especially from the ductions with local or international partners, journalist perspective (Crettaz, 2015). After but also and especially via the purchase of fo- the change in government administration in reign programs. December 2015, these initiatives were also questioned by the State. First, they were the The broadcasting of “remakes” on open na- object of heavier economic scrutiny, and later, tional television is nothing new, but until 2014 public funding was reduced in terms of the to- it was limited to full-length soap operas from tal financing of projects. Ibero-American countries, that generally occupied afternoon time slots, having mode- The partial backing out of the State as fic- rate success. The lower market value of the- tion industry promoter brought spotlight to se fictions that, in the case of Brazilians and and increased a crisis in local production that Turkish, achieved prime-time slots, increased already existed. This investigation project, even more the tendency in detriment to local empirical and analytical in nature, seeks to production. According to data from the Ibe- characterize the current situation of the Ar- ro-American Observatory of Televised Fiction gentine fiction industry. Therefore, it will use (known as OBITEL for its Spanish acronym), in indicators such as the reduction in audience 2015 open TV of Buenos Aires broadcasted numbers and demographic changes in fiction ° Comunicación y Medios N 37 /2018 e-ISSN 0719-1529 E. Rivero 170audiences broadcast on open television. At Among its multiple effects, concentration of the same time, it analyzes in detail the policy ownership tends to produce “reduction in di- of promotional financing that the State pro- versity” (Becerra: 2010: 104) and geographi- vided, discussing its main achievements and cally concentrate production. limitations. Concentration of ownership of the media was facilitated by the different administrations in office at each time, which also provided eco- 2. Key to theoretic interpretations nomic support to large companies and kept regulations weak favoring concentrated in- and methodological aspects terests. In the case of Argentina, recently in 2009, there was a new regulation - Law of Au- Theoretically speaking, the paper is inscribed diovisual Communication Services (known as in the framework of studies on Political Eco- LSCA for its Spanish acronym)- that, formally, nomics of Communication that provide some put a limit on commercial treatment of com- factors on how to analyze the changes to the munication and ownership concentration. value chain and distribution of the audiovisual industry (Arsenault & Castells, 2008; Zallo, Therefore, contrary to the historical tenden- 2011). In addition, this focus enables analysis cy that concentrated fiction production in the of the very concentration tendency of cultural hands and lands of few, the State introduced industries and the double-sided material and a novelty by way of an ambitious promotion symbolic of cultural goods, whose implications plan for production of federal content, which on social production of meaning and the cons- sought to diversify the players involved in the truction of cultural identities propose relative production of audiovisual content. Neverthe- aspects to guarantee cultural diversity in these less, the experience, just as it was created, new scenarios (Garnham, 1990; Mosco, 1996; did not get very far, and towards the end of Sierra, 2006). 2015, communication policies restored the state of things as it was previous to the LSCA, In particular, the media system in the region is greasing the gears that allow large economic characterized, among other aspects, for having players favorable conditions and concentra- a marked commercial framework and high le- tion. vels of concentration in media ownership, in addition to the centralization of content pro- In this context, there was a change in the duction in large cities. There is also the pre- logic and scope of public subsidy plans for sence of government-run state media in their fiction production that had been in the wor- editorial lines and with little audience penetra- ks since 2009. The new scenario invites the- tion, which has worked to strengthen the priva- refore an analysis of the achievements and te commercial system (Arroyo, Becerra, García. limitations of the previous experience. In & Santamaría, 2012; Becerra & Mastrini, 2009). effect, it is important to produce empirical In the

Load more