Battle of the Soaps: Brazilian Minister Takes On TV Giant

BATTLE OF THE SOAPS: BRAZILIAN MINISTER TAKES ON TV GIANT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Matt Moffett]
Edir Macedo, the leader of a huge evangelical Protestant church, knows firsthand the impact of the melodramas produced by TV Globo, South America's dominant broadcaster. After all, Globo once ran a scathing miniseries called "Decadência," about an unscrupulous minister who was a barely fictionalized version of Mr. Macedo himself. Now, in a strange plot twist, Mr. Macedo is having his revenge against Globo and in the process turning what had been one of the world's least competitive TV markets on its ear. Mr. Macedo has invested tens of millions of dollars in an effort to transform a tiny religious-oriented network he owns, Rede Record, into a frank imitator of Globo. Over the past three years, Record has bought and expanded an old studio on 18 acres of land just a few miles from Globo's massive production complex. Offering salaries far above the going rate, Record has hired hundreds of actors, technicians and journalists -- most of whom had cut their teeth at Globo. Globo's face-off with its look-alike competitor represents an entertainment earthquake in Brazil, where Globo customarily pulls in more than half of prime-time viewers and about three-quarters of ad spending. Now, Record's emergence is bringing down the curtain on a tropical version of the old Hollywood studio system, in which Globo dominated all aspects of the entertainment scene and dictated its will to artists. "For the first time, actors have real negotiating power and real options," says Lavínia Vlasak, a former Globo supporting actress who moved to Record for her first starring telenovela role.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118359608584057572.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
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