•Joseph Straubhaar, University of Texas •(jdstraubhaar@mail.utexas.edu)•IAMCR Durban, July 2012

New BRICS, Old Connections; Empire Roots vs. Geographic Proximity: Brazil as an TV Exporter in the Lusophone Cultural-Linguistic Space and Latin America

Context of multiple media spaces/levels of production, flow, identification

• U.S. “empire” based on Hollywood structural & cultural power + major computer hardware, software and Internet companies

• Other global program producers/exporters, genres and audiences – like telenovelas, anime, Bollywood, in TV, social nets in Web– emerging powers like Brazil, India (other BRICS?)

• Other global format exporters – game shows, reality shows, Internet sites & services

• Transnational cultural-linguistic exporters (former colonies and diasporas)--like English, French, Portuguese-speaking

• Geo-cultural regional (common or similar languages, shared histories, geographic proximity -- like Latin America)

• National—still primary site of production for most TV viewers/Internet users?

• Metro, local, regional – not viable for TV yet, but already viable for music, news, Internet (blogs, social nets, email, NGO websites)

Brazil as BRICS• Rapid GNP growth• Income distribution changed– 40% of population newly added to lower middle class

• Economic growth -> job & income growth• Income transfer via family payments, bolsa escola• But educational structure, access still limited

• From import substitution, including culture, industry

• To export growth – oil, agriculture, minerals, industry, culture

Growth of Brazilian middle class, reduction in the poorest

Percen-tage(%)

Televi-sion

Sate-llite Dish

Pay TV

Radio

Land-line Phone

Cell Phone

A 100 34 72 99 93 100

B 100 34 26 96 74 96

C 99 26 6 88 42 87

D/E 94 21 1 75 15 54

Brazilian Internet Coordinating Committee, 2008 - CGI Data

What media people have in Brazil, by social class

CRUCIAL NATIONAL MARKET BASE, EMERGENT MEDIA POWER FROM NATIONAL POLICY, CULTURAL INDUSTRY, REGIONAL CULTURESBrazilian government used language, education, radio, TV,

telephone infrastructure strategically to unify nation, create strongly imagined community

Strong national private cultural industries have reinforced national identity

Strong regional and local culture, partially industrialized, resources for national cultural industry

Has this created dominant national and regional frame for newer media?

• 1930s: Vargas uses radio/samba to build or reinforce national identity

• 1960s: Brazilian military government created telecom infrastructure for telephony, TV, subsidized TV nets with ads, set acquisition, TV to reinforce national identity

• 1970s-80s: TV Globo quasi monopoly, created most of own programming, localities subsidized TV re-transmitters

• 1990s: Satellites extend nationally, almost all Brazilians had television

Brazil: The Country of TV

Audience, station, genre development prior to export

• Globo emphasis on quality, high end production– Especially in telenovelas– Has focused on broad

national audience• But especially richest

30% who advertisers most want to reach

Paraiso tropical

TV Globo today

• had average audience share of more than 50% and ratings above 30% on primetime, which allowed it to receive about two-thirds of the entire ad spent on open TV in Brazil.

• More competition since 1990s, esp. mid-2000s • The cost of each (of four nightly) telenovela chapters

ranges from $100,000 to $175,000, above international standards.

TV Globo today

• "We now have 100 to 120 actors in a telenovela, against 30 in the past. We need about 40 scenarios, including several scenario towns, three times more than before. Plot situations, which lasted months in the past, are now resolved in a week. We have five directors shooting simultaneously, against just one, maybe two, in the old days,” Octavio Florisbal, Director General, TV Globo

Variety, Sep. 12, 2007,

Globo Telenovela export

• "The Clone," one of TV Globo's big hits, was sold to 74 countries and dubbed to 17 languages. Overall, novelas sold to 140 countries.

Cultural logics of proximity

• Linguistic logic – cultural linguistic spaces– Lusophone vs. Hispanic

• Geographic logic – geocultural, geolinguistic spaces– Latin American cultural commonalities despite

language

• Iberian colonial similarities• Portuguese vs. Spanish– Idea of Luso-tropical culture

Latin American telenovela market competitive

• Top producers– Mexico, Brazil

• Second tier, rising export?– Colombia, Argentina– Venezuela, Peru

• Third tier, increasing prodcuction – Chile,

• Fourth, largely import from within region

Competing genres within Latin American telenovela

• Even more specific genres, like the Brazilian socially engaged or historical telenovelas, versus the romantic Mexican Cinderella story telenovela (Hernandez 2001), develop or emerge over time within those genre traditions – Dura vs. blanda

Brazilian primacy in Lusophone

• Globo - Brazilian telenovela export to Portugal 1976

• Globo investment in SIC Portugal 1992

• Globo, Record export to Lusophone Africa

• Major impact on Portuguese, African cultures

• Record expansion in Europe, Africa, Asia

• Portuguese competition

• Huge impact of Gabriela export to Portugal 1977

Challenges to TV Globo• If Globo had broad, general audience, then others focus on

class segments?• Manchete

– Aimed at elite audience• High end novelas (“Pantanal”), news

• SBT (Sistema Brasileira de Televisão)– Focuses on working class

• reality shows, game shows, Mexican telenovelas

• TV Record (owned by Universal Church)– Focused on working class, similar to SBT, now refocusing to

compete with TV Globo for broader audience

Record - alternative novelas?

• Since 2004, new novelas• Aiming at Globo quality• Maintaining audience focus

– Some set in favelas– More Afro-Brazilians?

Competition for Brazilian primacy in Lusophone

• Record- Brazilian telenovela export to Portugal 1976

• Record investment in Portugal 1992

• Record export to Lusophone Africa

• TV Record owns #2 network Mozambique

• Gabriela

Conclusions – 1 – Brazil as TV exporter

• Continued export by both Globo and Record• Continued export to both Latin America and

Lusophone world, as well as globally• Globo more prominent in Latin America, globally

in dubbed versions• Record more in Lusophone, per se, Central

America, following IURD church growth• Investment mostly by Record, Central America,

Europe, Lusophone Africa

Conclusions -2 – Brazil as BRICS

• Brazil less rapid internal growth than China, but more equitable at bottom?– But still challenged by inadequate education

• Brazil more established as global cultural exporter – Primarily TV + music, film

• Global BRIC vs. Latin American regional and Lusophone cultural linguistic cultural power

Muito obrigado (thank you)