• Submitted by: lena campos
• Business and Economy
• 10 / 25 / 2012

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Cuba wants to regain its top position in the Latin market of telenovelas, said Omar Olazabal, vice president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), at the opening of the 2012 Festival and Expo-Fair International Television Cuba,.
 
"Paradoxically, Cuba sowed the seeds of the modern telenovela and now it lags behind other Latin American countries," Olazabal told delegates at the event held at the Convention Palace in Havana.

The main producers of telenovelas in Latin America fed from dozens of stories by Cuban scriptwriters, and we have not been able to harness the full extent of that talent to please our own audience, he said.

Olazabal told ACN news that to be able to compete in this market Cuban television will have to make adjustments to its formats, contents, and productive routines to meet world standards without losing Cuban identity in its products.

We are facing challenges in the production of scripts and then in their making, he added. “We are trying to find ways to boost creation and the interaction between ICRT and the creators, especially scriptwriters”

During his speech Olazabal stressed that Cuban television is facing a process of changes regarding technological renewal, recovery of the sense of system and proper balance between culture, entertainment and political-ideological content.

In Latin America telenovelas are an immensely popular genre, and they are largely profitable. Avenida Brasil, a Brazilian telenovela, made Globo TV over 1 billion USD out of a mere 45 million investment this year.

More than 200 delegates from 20 countries attend the International Festival and Expoferia-, first of this magnitude to be held ​​ in Cuba, and carried out under the slogan "Television in the Global Era: Challenges for the survival of national identity".

Source: ACN