ABS-CBN sees big bucks in ‘telenovelas’

Lopez-owned ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. expects huge earnings from the sale of rights to air locally produced ‘tele-novelas’ in other countries as more and more foreigners get hooked on watching these soap operas.

In fact, sales of ABS-CBN telenovelas abroad increased by 285 percent last year compared to 2001. This year, sales are expected to increase 200 percent as against 2002.

ABS-CBN international sales and distribution director Reena Garingan explained that they are now positioning themselves as a foreign programmer, distributing ABS-CBN produced soaps to other countries, which in turn dub these programs in their own languages or dialects.

Garingan noted that before, ABS-CBN focused its efforts on selling these programs to Filipino communities in other countries. "We realized, however, that we were limiting the business. While there may be more than 200,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, not everyone gets the chance to watch these Filipino shows. Many domestic helpers for instance are not allowed by their employers to watch TV, especially Tagalog shows," she said.

Since last year, ABS-CBN has been selling to Malaysia the right to air Filipino telenovelas like ‘Mula sa Puso,’ and ‘Pangako sa Iyo’ (the latter being shown twice in Malaysia, one in the morning on free TV and another in the afternoon on paid TV or cable).

She revealed that Filipino soap operas have such a huge following among Malaysians that Malaysia now wants to get other telenovelas of ABS-CBN like ‘Kay Tagal’ and ‘Bituin.’

ABS-CBN is also in talks with Vietnam and Malaysia which have expressed interest in airing ‘Kay Tagal’ and ‘Bituin.’

The country’s largest broadcast company has also entered into an agreement with a Kenyan distributor for the airing of ‘Pangako sa Iyo’ in Kenya starting Oct. 1.

"We are proud to say that the Mexicans had to give their telenovelas to the Kenyans for free just to air them. In our case, they were willing to buy," Garingan emphasized.

Garingan also disclosed that they are also in talks with distributors in Eastern Europe for the airing of ABS-CBN tele-novelas.