Latin telenovellas are hot property for local TV

By Antariksawan Jusuf

JAKARTA (JP): A recent media report highlighted the importance of Latin telenovellas in Indonesian television programming. It is approaching prime time, reads a recent headline of Media Indonesia.

The article was referring to a decision by TPI network to air new telenovella La Usurpadora (locally called Cinta Paulina) at 6 p.m., one and a half hours before prime time. On weekdays, stations normally schedule more family oriented programs or news in that particular slot. Telenovellas have never been screened at such a time. It is a housewife-oriented program.

But never underestimate a simple poor-girl-falling-in-love- with-a-rich-man plot on television. It is a television station's backbone in the ratings and an unquestionable revenue generator.

Here and in other countries such as Israel, telenovellas can force a station to put aside important programs. SCTV, whose prestigious Liputan 6 has stayed on top of all other news programs, had to stop live coverage of a legislature session with Rudy Ramli of Bank Bali on Sept. 9 to make a way for popular Rosalinda. In Israel, telenovellas can bump a prime-time news program. There are even clubs of telenovella fans which discuss what happens on the next episodes of Latin series.

Many people underestimate the power telenovellas have in the political arena, but in reality one played a role in peace-making efforts in war-torn Bosnia last year. After world leaders restored peace there, disaster almost shattered it. The disaster was not a roadblock cutting off food supply, nor violation of the peace treaty. It was simply because a Yugoslav television station had stopped airing popular Venezuelan telenovella Kassandra.

The Bosnians complained to U.S. officials, saying that Yugoslav Serbs were trying to intimidate them. U.S. diplomats, fearing the peace process could be derailed, called the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington for help.

Bosnian viewers, who had lived under a Communist government that often made programming decisions for purely political reasons, believed the Yugoslav station was trying to intimidate and threaten them by taking the show off the air.

Venezuela's Coral Pictures, when told of the situation, immediately offered to let the Bosnian air the show for free on their own station. Viewers were happy and the rest is history, World Screen magazine reported.

Telenovellas were first introduced to Indonesian viewers by state TVRI when it screened Brazilian telenovella Isaura in the early 1990s. Despite its awkward Indonesian-dubbed version, it in no time won the hearts of women viewers.

Many believe the love and hate, jealousy, rags-to-riches story is very close to the reality of family and daily life. It also brings a combination of everyday situations and the universal value of romance and drama which contributes to their addictive quality.

One of the stations which banks on long-running episodes of telenovellas is SCTV. An observer and a former editor of the now- defunct Monitor weekly Veven Wardhana once claimed SCTV stood for Stasiun Cerita Telenovela (Station for Telenovellas).

At a time when telenovellas became hot programs in the early 1990s, SCTV created slots for telenovellas in its daytime scheduling five hours a day. While struggling to share a top position with RCTI and Indosiar in September-October 1999, SCTV relied heavily on Rosalinda to gain ratings.

Rosalinda stars highly celebrated Mexican actor Thalia whose appearance in any telenovella series -- Maria Mercedes, Marimar and Maria from the Neighbourhood -- guarantees a double-digit rating, even on second runs.

When Thalia visited the country in mid 1996, thousands of Indonesian newborns were named after her. Thalia is now the hottest property of Mexico's Protele which releases only one title annually for her.

Other stations like Indosiar and ANteve run one telenovella title, respectively Divina Obsession and Tropicalente, on daytime programming. While RCTI, which aired the successful Wild Rose in 1993, is the only station to now stay away from telenovellas.

But telenovellas certainly do not impress everybody. Many critics say the storylines, which largely consist of intrigue, adultery and revenge, do not set a good example for society, since they do not reflect the values of eastern culture.