Beyond the telenovela
As viewer expectations change thanks to gritty US dramas like Breaking Bad, Hispanic networks and studios are injecting more action into their programming. But does this spell the end for the traditional telenovela? For now, Spanish- and Portuguese-language television around the world is still dominated by those five-days-a-week dramas like Televisa’s hit Mi Corazón es Tuyo, which on Univision in the US was averaging 3.3 million viewers earlier this year. These are Cinderella stories where a down-on-her-luck young woman falls hopelessly in love with an out-of-reach rich guy who, 120 or more episodes later, falls in love with her. For decades that formula has fuelled the worldwide explosion of Hispanic TV. In the US alone, Spanish-language TV drummed up US$5.9bn in ad revenue in the first three quarters of 2014 (up 28% year-on-year), according to ad-tracking firm Kantar Media. Yet Hispanic studios and TV networks around the globe are shaking up that lucrative formula, and with good reason. Like many other broadcast sectors, they increasingly face their audience migrating to watch fast-paced dramas like The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad on digital platforms, luring millions of Hispanic viewers away from watching telenovelas. The Hispanic TV industry is reaching out to these viewers, who are often young and watching content in Spanish and other languages on digital platforms in short, binged bursts – none of which lends itself to traditional telenovelas that can run up to 300 episodes over many weeks. “We want to offer the entire Hispanic audience different stories,” … Continue reading Beyond the telenovela
