Hard times drive Latin TV mart.(Forum Brasil)(Conference news)

A new convention venue, the Transamerica Expo Center, and a new official hotel, the Blue Tree Towers, welcomed 600 participants from 22 countries for the 10th annual Forum Brasil International TV Market in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 3-5. Attendance was down by roughly 50 percent in comparison to last year, a similar story to that of other markets that fell victim to the worldwide economic downturn.

Another new element of this year's event was the meeting of television stations from Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and associated states (Bolivia, Chile and Peru). The annual "30 Minutes With" program included 22 meetings with 28 TV executives from nine different countries. Three major panels served as highlights, along with four pitching events, two workshops and the presentation of a new Canadian project. A full day of meetings with TV stations from the nine Portuguese-speaking countries of the world (spanning Europe, South America, Africa and Asia) closed the event.

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Representatives from TVTL Televisao, Timor East, were so enthusiastic about the results of last year's Portuguese-language meeting that they came back full of expectations. According to TVTL's Antonio Dias, his station was able to sign a good programming deal with TV Globo last year for both telenovelas and children's shows. In anticipation of similar accords this time around, Dias and his colleagues made quite the effort to return. In order to reach Sao Paulo, they flew to Darwin, Australia, caught a second flight to Sydney, a third from there to Buenos Aires, Argentina and, finally, one to Brazil.

This year's Forum was situated in a more remote section of Sao Paulo than usual. The Expo Center is located in what could be considered the city's suburbs--an area known as Brooklin, which houses Rede Globo's headquarters.

Despite having fewer exhibitors and participants than in years past, there were still a number of useful panels, including ones about "Production Business Models" and "Business Models in a Changing World." The latter was moderated by VideoAge's Dom Serafini and featured panelists Farrell Meisel, an American TV broadcast and satellite consultant, and Charles Zamaria, professor of Radio and Television at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.

During his presentation, Professor Zamaria remarked, "Internet ain't TV. Internet is a destination." Meisel pointed out that with the popularity of the Internet, "[People] have more options. It's a jungle out there." Serafini challenged the panelists with questions about technology and programming, prompting debates about the switch from broadcast to broadband and whether, with IPTV availability looming, DTV (or DTT) is a useless and costly temporary technology. On the programming side, Serafini asked, "How are DTT stations going to pay to program three extra multiplexes?" and "Is it possible to eliminate risks and bring rewards to both TV outlets and producers?"

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