10.5: The Asymmetrical Relationship Between Indie Houses and Television Networks
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- Huan Piñón
- University of California Press
Even though independents provide creative possibilities free from the constraints of network in-house productions, most still lack the economic, technological, and labor capacity to produce their own content without the financial backing of a television network or a major sponsor. An executive producer from Blind Spot, Mexico, describes this model as one of “interdependency.” 29 Even in cases where a production house has the means to produce its own content, the executive producer argues, “they still depend on having clients who want to buy this specific content.” In some way, the producer from Blind Spot is subtly recognizing its condition of dependency on clients and television networks.
Argos is an interesting example of the challenges faced by indie producers, even though it is one of the most important indie houses in the large television market of Mexico. Its prestige as a leading producer of “quality fiction for TV” was achieved initially when Argos worked for TV Azteca (1995–2000) and produced some of the most innovative telenovelas from that decade. Ultimately a battle over distribution rights led TV Azteca to part ways with the indie in 2000. 30 That year Argos reached an agreement with Telemundo to produce 1,200 hours of fictional programming, but in this case Argos used its leverage to secure a share of distribution rights in international markets. 31 A screenwriter working with the Argos team recalls that Telemundo was willing to make concessions so long as Argos would shape its production to accommodate a specific U.S. Latino demographic as well as Mexican audiences. 32 Argos worked exclusively for Telemundo until 2007, then with TV Azteca again until 2010, when it struck a production agreement with Cadena Tres, a rising new network targeting upscale audiences. 33 Argos was encouraged to innovate as a way to enhance Cadena Tres’s profile. As one Argos writer described it, “I was expressly asked to be polemical and controversial with a new project called Las Aparicio . It was delightful to have almost total freedom.” 34 Seeking to distinguish itself from the dominant networks, Televisa and TV Azteca, Cadena Tres “had nothing to lose and too much to gain.” However, the precarious positon of independents is interestingly exemplified by Argos’s executive producer when he talks about its relation with Cadena Tres. He remembers that the indie, challenged by the economic crisis of the time, proposed a new business model: “First, Cadena Tres provides part of the cost while Argos provides an in-kind contribution [ pago por especie ] and some economic investment, and then both look for a third partner.” 35 Argos invited Colombia’s Caracol TV as a third partner, but the producer recalls that “when two television networks got together [Cadena Tres and Caracol TV], they asked themselves, what do we need Argos for?” So TV Caracol and Cadena Tres moved along on a new production agreement, leaving Argos behind.
Increasingly, there is a great deal of transnational deal-making between networks and independent production houses, much of it motivated by the desire to attract audiences in multiple markets. The key role of Argos is best exemplified by the indies’ collaboration in Telemundo’s La reina del sur in 2011, a coproduction that included RTI (Colombia) and Antena 3 (Spain). La reina del sur featured a transnational flow of characters with a drug trafficking narrative that was filmed in Bogota, Mexico City, Miami, and Melilla, Spain, with production teams in each location, a strategy I call “reglocalization,” based on a “network cities system of production.” 36 La reina del sur proved to be one of the most successful telenovelas in recent memory for Telemundo. Later, El señor de los cielos (2013), a new coproduction of Telemundo with Colombia’s Caracol TV and the collaboration of Argos, became the second most popular production in Telemundo’s history, only surpassed by La reina . That telenovela earned an Emmy in 2014 37 and propelled a new collaboration between Telemundo and Argos to produce new successful seasons of El señor de los cielos 2 (2014), 3 (2015), and 4 (forthcoming), but this time without Caracol TV. This series of successes set the stage for a new programming/production strategy that Telemundo has called “super series.”
The new set of corporate relationships that localized transnational ventures producing Spanish-language fictional programming is best exemplified by HBO’s incursion into Mexico in partnership with Argos and by Sony’s into Colombia in partnership with Laberinto Producciones. After prior experiences in Argentina and Brazil, HBO in 2007 announced its strategic partnership with Argos to produce Capadocia (2008) for Mexican and regional markets. 38 By 2014, HBO had experience producing with indies across the region, with eighteen television series produced in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. While working for HBO on Capadocia , one screenwriter remembers that she had a lot of creative freedom, which allowed the inclusion of “a lot of things that were vox populi, but nobody expected to see on television, not even on cable.” 39 At the same time, “the expectation was to have an international product with high production values, with high-quality scripts.” Because of these expectations, “the budget and investment of the company were considerably higher,” and she added, “they paid us very well.” 40 She recognizes that HBO supervised the project but never really interfered in creative decisions or practiced any kind of censorship.
Sony’s presence in the Colombian television market can be exemplified by the production of Los caballeros las prefieren brutas with indie producer Laberinto Producciones. 41 Sony’s partnership with the Colombian indie seems to be similar to HBO’s and Argos’s in Mexico, as described by an executive producer from Laberinto Producciones. Sony read the scripts and supervised the project but did not interfere too much with creative decisions. The producer explains, “For Sony it was an experiment that had its own risks, and they tried to understand how it works from a different creative point of view. They saw that some things function differently in Latin America, and they were open to that.” 42
In contrast, argues the Colombian producer, when a national network deals with an indie, it tries to interfere as much as possible in creative decisions to ensure that the product meets the network’s goals. For instance, some of the most sensitive decisions in which networks intervene are in casting, to promote their own talent, followed by interfering in narrative strategies to please clients and their target audience. For example, an artistic director from Del Barrio Producciones in Peru argues that “sometimes we approach the network to pitch a story, and we want to make it with specific leading talent. Sometimes the channel buys the story but objects to the leading talent, and we need to change it.” 43