Execs from Amazon Studios, TelevisaUnivision and Televisa debated on the current state of the telenovela and the impact AI will have on it in the not-so-distant future.
Among the multiple events at Conecta Fiction, the panel titled ‘Mexico: Broadcasters & Platforms’ saw Ángel Inzunza, development executive of original content at Amazon Studios in Mexico, Vanesa Rosas, VP of streaming partnerships and business operations at TelevisaUnivision, and Guillermo Quesada, script and content advisor for Televisa, debate on how the telenovela has been impacted by the advent of streamers. Moderator Alejandro Palma of Mestizo Lab played devil’s advocate, asking probing questions to tease their views on the current television landscape in Mexico.
Pointing out that Televisa’s telenovelas continue to be number one worldwide in terms of content sales and that they have been adapted in 130 countries, Quesada, who is also a scriptwriter, said: “When streaming platforms arrived, there was talk that the soap opera was going to die, and people asked what would happen to us writers.”
But contrary to the doomsayers and the impact of the pandemic, “telenovelas are more alive than ever and they represent a very important commercial business,” he asserted.
Amazon’s Inzunza pointed out that melodrama is in Mexico’s DNA and that “dramatic narrative DNA is present in all content,” suggesting that Mexican content makers have to consider developing the melodrama, i.e. the telenovela, in all kinds of genres. “Amazon Studios is not the main business of the company, but we like to take chances,” he said adding: “I understand that producers have to sell but look for something that sells itself. This is a space to create, let’s not lose that conviction.”
Telenovelas on ViX, the fast-growing streaming platform of TelevisaUnivision, are the most watched, according to Rosas.” “The really good ones are watched many times over,” she points out. Televisa’s vast library is being monetized on FAST channels, adding precious value to long-shelved content, she added.
With regards to AI, Rosas said: “All artificial intelligence and databases originate from a human brain. I think it should be legalized and regulated in terms of creative issues,” she said, echoing the general consensus and among the thorniest issues that has pushed members of the Writers Guild to go on strike in the U.S. “I don’t think that human emotions can be supplanted; the story may be good but the emotions are what makes you connect. I don’t know how it will be handled but I doubt it will replace a screenwriter.”
For Inzunza, one has to familiarize oneself with it.“I think that we have to start mastering these technologies in order to lose our fear.”
“I think that AI is still a very controversial topic,” Quesada concurred, pointing out that the telenovela, by its very structure, is made “to provoke emotions and feelings.” “I think that all writers and content creators should not allow AI to tear us away from our humanity,” he concluded.