The lack of fiction production in Argentina’s open television channels is worrying. It is a collapse that admits several readings and is the result of a succession of variables. Today it is cheaper to acquire the can of a Turkish novel or gather specialized panelists in all kinds of topics to generate unitary or local strips, which involve extensive recording days and large casts. On the other, the overwhelming amount of reality showswith its usual emotional, dramatic and curiosity component, which attracts many spectators. Let’s add the technological possibility of seeing a series in one of the multiple platforms of streamingat any time and anywhere.
These factors, added to the decline of the ignition and the consequent scarce ratingthey contributed, for example, that the 122 episodes of “good boys” were the last fiction issued by Channel 13 in 2024. Produced by Polka, a great content generator for three decades, meant one of the last blows of effect that the audiovisual industry suffered, and survived hard despite several schedule changes.
Possible solution
The lack of fiction proposals has several consequences. One of them is its impact on theatrical billboards, since, in general, actresses and actors who conquered popularity thanks to television work are usually those who head the great hits of the commercial circuit.
Theatrical producer Carlos Rotongerg, with a 50 -year trajectory in the activity and recognized businessman of several rooms, both in CABA and in Mar del Plata, was the first to notice the situation we are going through and in contributing a possible solution: transfer the model of the theatrical cooperatives to the generation of content. “The lack of fiction on open television entails, in addition to the worrying individual economy that negatively impacts the set of actors, a future damage to the world of theater. Diffusion on free television of the works of hundreds of good artists caused, in multiply cases, the interest of the audience to watch them ‘live’. There are plenty of examples of those very good television programs of fiction Actresses and actors that even today lead the marques of the great theaters.
His proposal recalls the self -managed work form of the legendary “Clan Stivel”, emerged from an idea by actor Emilio Alfaro and director David Stivel, who, at the end of the sixties, created “judged thing”, one of the best programs that Argentine television met. This emblematic cycle gathered a remarkable sum of actors under the name “Theater People”, and included outstanding figures such as Aleandro Norma, Federico Luppi, Carlos Carella, Marilina Ross, Barbara Mújica, Juan Carlos Gené and Alfaro. All came from the theater and, in 1967, the successful “El Hostén” had represented in the Athenaeum, a work that summoned 85,000 spectators and raised 35 million pesos, an unusual figure for that time.
Rottemberg in December summoned a meeting to representatives of organizations linked to the artistic and referents of television production. “In Idea mode, I proposed that they copy the model of theatrical cooperatives: that the channels are the theaters, that the producers contribute the facilities and that the slice is taken by the talent. Luck or truth, because on the other side there is nothing,” he says.
Another initiative
The popular actor Pablo Echarri, of outstanding participation in fictions such as “I will resist”, “Montecristo” and “The chosen”, is also one of the creators of the producer El Tree. He has participated in numerous Argentine films and, in Theater, starred “The Pillowman” and “Art.” He is currently part of the cast of the successful “Druk” at the Metropolitan Theater and has just released the suspense series “Chameleon: the past does not change”, in Disney+. As a member of the Sagai Board of Directors (Argentine Company for the Management of Interpreters), he warns that local cinematography is also at risk.
“Television in Argentina comes in constant decline, but talking about audiovisual must include what is happening in INCAA. It is a world example in terms of impulse to cinematography, especially since the nineties. To those who make the most and obtain greater commercial results.
“On the other hand, there is television production, with content that were soap operas, unitary and miniseries. That was definitely collapsed by the absence of tools and laws of impulse, which are the ones that boost the audiovisual industry in general. It ceased to exist that television production for not being viable or profitable for channels, even more with the reduction of the advertising cake after the arrival of the internet and social networks,” holds.
On Rottemberg’s proposal, it summarizes: “Rottemberg’s vision, which we share, is that nothing generates more link with the artist with the artist than fiction on air television. The arrival of the platforms, although the production wand has raised, does not impact the same way in the heart, so to speak, of the spectators. That is being reflected in the Bordeaeaux theatrical. We need to carry out a tool that fosters the possibility of fiction in the air channels. Energize national investments so that the channels are again producing houses ”, analyzes
“To generate incentive conditions for national and foreign investors, there is a tool widely used in the region and in the world called Cash Rebate. It consists of a return of the investment that will be reused in future productions. It can also be useful to decrease VAT or zero tariff for the importation of equipment and content. Spain is a paradigmatic example of this type of incentives: in the last fifteen years, it took care of and encouraged its audiovisual industry. The Argentine audiovisual sector is collapsed, and we have to agree so that the industry is reborn again, ”he concludes.
In the theater
Federico d’Elía is one of the actors who returned to the tables in the absence of television, and did it with Diego Peretti, his old companion of “The simulators”, in the work “The Chief of the Chief”, with the direction of Javier Daulte on the Paseo la Plaza.
“That there is no fiction on open television is sad, it is unfortunate and it is a reality. The times changed so much that, at least in Argentina, the fiction is very difficult. Among other causes, because today people can choose what they want to see and how. Many of the actors that we were on the TV migrate to the theater because there is not much cinema to do. What we have left, as always, is the refuge of the theater. Or five works that can come to walk very well.
Eleonora Wexler, the talented actress who currently travels through the interior of the country with the piece “The Lie”, considers that in addition to the realization costs, there is a great transformation in the industry with the irruption of the platforms. “I read about Rottemberg’s proposal and I don’t know if it is the solution, but I think it is interesting to open the debate and find new ways of creation. You cannot return time ago, but see what possibilities exist so that there is more work. You have to define what organisms can support and help the industry grow and develop a television with national identity,” he says.
The situation is complex and difficult to solve, but, as Rottemberg points out: “From the theatrical work, fiction cradle, we must support the return of our actors to the screens of mass television. Without a doubt, in addition to being supportive to the group of artists with which we relate professionally, it will also be another effective way to continue strengthening the industrial theater activity of the future.”
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