Univision and Puerto Rican Films

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New Player Univision Shakes Up Local Television Industry…

By LAURA RENTAS-GIUSTI

December 26, 2002
Copyright © 2002 CARIBBEAN BUSINESS.
All Rights Reserved.

Univision Communications’ takeover of the now-defunct TeleOnce dominated the media headlines in Puerto Rico throughout 2002. The main Spanish-language communications company in the U.S., Univision announced its goals upon entering the local market in February: to strengthen its news coverage and to limit media clutter to no more than 10 minutes per hour.

Later in the year, Vice President & General Manager Larry Sands revealed that according to Mediafax ratings, 19 of the 50 highest-rated shows on local television were aired by Univision, among them soap operas "Gata Salvaje" and "Salome" and game shows "Sabado Gigante" and "Que Suerte."

In 2003, Univision will continue to air Latin American soap operas, which have been the cornerstone of its success with Puerto Rico viewers. The station’s news team will keep airing three daily shows plus a weekend edition.

Another newcomer to the island’s TV dial was Deportes 13, a sports programming slot on Teleoro (Ch. 13) developed by Empresas Angelo Medina. Deportes 13 has a five-year deal with Teleoro to transmit Major League Baseball (MLB) games, National Basketball Association (NBA) games, Professional Winter Baseball League games, and other major sporting events during prime time.

Research company Research & Research unveiled a comprehensive media consumption study which indicated that Puerto Ricans spend a daily average of 3 hours and 11 minutes watching TV, 3 hours and 43 minutes listening to the radio, 29 minutes reading newspapers, 1 hour and 54 minutes surfing the Internet, and 2 hours and 12 minutes on the road.

The study also determined that some 825,000 people listen to morning radio shows every day, with the number almost evenly split between men and women. The study yielded other specific information, such as that 55% of middle-class women who live in the San Juan metro area watch soap operas, 45% of which are on Channel 2 and 25% on Channel 11.

The local film industry was host to a couple of major events, including the third Movie Goals symposium, the first Puerto Rico Sun Fest film festival, and the 14th San Juan Cinemafest.

Jorge Rojas, partner at Muvi Films and producer of the Sun Fest, said the event had three important goals: to develop the local film industry by generating interest in productions and increasing the number of locally made movies, to explore ways to make profitable films in Puerto Rico, and to help local filmmakers produce and find distributors for their films.

The San Juan Cinemafest included galas and special activities, cocktail parties attended by local and international film personalities, and the showing of more than 50 local, Caribbean, and international films. Movie lovers were also able to enjoy conferences and panels addressing such subjects as international film distribution.

In an effort to further strengthen the local film industry, a group of local film and sound production companies formed an alliance called Productoras Asociadas de Imagen y Sonido (PAIS, or Associated Producers of Image & Sound) to promote the local production industry as one of the best and most competitive in Latin America.

Film production companies Paradiso Films, Viguie Films, Guede Films, X Films, DVI Films, and Kamikase Films joined sound production companies Mantek Productions, Mezzaluna Studios, Alfa Recording, and Digitec to form the organization.

In the radio arena, Onda 94 began airing Top 40 hits on Spanish Broadcasting System’s (SBS) 94.7 FM radio frequency in San Juan and on 94.1 elsewhere on the island. The new format replaces the Spanish rock programming previously featured on Cosmos 94.

They Said It This Year

"Since its inception, the San Juan Cinemafest has had great resonance on the local cultural scene. The festival has built a bridge between the best that international cinema has to offer and the island’s movie lovers, who are increasingly demanding quality movies."--Ramon Almodovar, San Juan Cinemafest board chairman

"You wouldn’t pay the same price for a store-bought, mass-produced dress as you would for a designer dress, would you? Thus advertising in a less cluttered environment will be more expensive."--Luis Roldan, president & general manager of Telemundo in Puerto Rico

"There is always movement in this active radio market; the rankings change frequently. It is interesting to follow stations as they employ new strategies to attract listeners and to see how they impact the ratings."--Thom Mocarsky, vice president of communications at Arbitron.

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