Trade show success reflects mart potential.

Brazil is a difficult territory to penetrate; yet it is a vast market with opportunities for international producers and distributors. It requires personal attention, a large investment and a constant presence. Regardless, it's a risk worth taking.

As a territory, Brazil counts 40 million TVHH with 4.2 million Pay-TVHH subscribers and a total of 10 national TV networks. Even though its theatrical market is small--estimated at U.S.$285 million per year--the 2002 success of Cidade de Deus, by Sao Paulo production company 02, has put Brazilian cinema on the international map, especially considering that, since 1993 Brazilian production companies have been able to deduct money invested in films from their income taxes.

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One way to keep one's fingers on the pulse of the Brazilian entertainment industry is to actively participate in one or more of the TV trade shows that recently have sprung up throughout the country. One of these is the increasingly popular Forum Brasil. Its eighth annual edition was held at the end of May in its traditional Sao Paulo venue, unfortunately not as an inexpensive city as Rio de Janeiro. But, on the plus side, with some 19.6 million people, Sao Paulo is Brazil's largest city and the second largest in the Americas (after Mexico City) and thus a key TV market.

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With a 60 percent increase over last year's numbers, Forum Brasil counted 1,000 attendees. Guests hailed from the U.S., Canada, France, Argentina, the U.K., Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Russia and Chile and, of course, Brazil.

The Forum's schedule reflected a traditional model: Exhibitors, screenings, conferences and pitching sessions. The event had 32 seminars and 62 speakers featuring producers, distributors and representatives from free-to-air and pay-TV channels, trade associations and government agency representatives.

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An additional international panel of judges chose the best of 15 pitches in the following categories: Documentary, TV Series and Animation. In the doc category, A Margem do Lixo, about sanitation workers in Sao Paulo, won the coveted award; Os Buchas, about the effects of women on the young adult male, was rewarded in the TV Series category; and the winning Animation project was Os Abelhudos, about a group of bees acting as doctors.

In total, 110 productions were available for viewing by the delegates (representing a 60 percent increase from last year). The majority of those (42) were documentaries.

The event's highlight was an official tribute to Telemundo, the NBC-owned Spanish-language network in the U.S.

Foreign delegates were all housed in the same hotel a few minutes away from Centro de Exposicoes Frei Caneca, the convention center where the Forum was held, on the fourth level of a shopping mall. Shuttle busses served the venues, but without a posted schedule and no way to identify the shuttles, many resorted to taking taxis. The convention center was a good trek from the hotel, if one wanted to walk, but the weather was unusually cold with temperatures reaching zero centigrade, often preventing the venture.

The two-day affair was sprinkled with coffee and hors-d'oeuvres breaks, but in between the intervals, the widely sought-after coffee was hard to come by.

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Among the 21 exhibitors were the U.K.'s BBC and Granada, Portugal's TVI-NBP, Germany's DW, and, from the U.S., TPI, HBO and Telemundo. Plus, present without booths were companies such as Venezuela's Venevision and Argentina's Telefe, in addition to some major Brazilian TV broadcasters, such as Record TV and Bandeirantes (TV Globo, SBT and TV Brasil participated with stands).

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The next edition of Forum Brasil will take place June 3-5, 2008. BRAZIL HIGHLIGHTS Population 180 million TV Homes 40 million Pay-TV Subscribers 4.2 million National Networks 10 Commercial Broadcasters 283 Educational Broadcasters 164