Brazil’s New Private TV: Another Yawn

Eight months after the government raised hopes for better television by selling two channels, the private tubes carry the same diet of game shows, tired comedy, sensational news and reruns.

“They promised us cultural programs and they deceived us,” said Raul Paladino, a high school math teacher. “The news programs aren’t very informative . . . and shows that are supposed to be funny give me a headache.” Dora Schmidt, a housewife, said both private channels “seem to have the same formula: soap operas, bloody stories, conflicts between neighbors, assaults, rapes and all sorts of low blows.”

Carlos Montero, who has produced hit shows for three decades, said the station staffs have ideas, but no money, and programming might improve when the economy does.

“Television is like a dragon,” he said. “When it’s healthy, it breathes fire and converts everything to gold. When it’s asthmatic, in crisis, it begins to wheeze and turn everything to ashes.”

Channels 11 and 13 were sold in December, leaving only Channel 7 in government hands. The two other channels also are privately owned.

State-run television offers performances from around the world of opera, ballet and classical music, and movies from Spain, the United States, France and other countries.

It carries top sports events, especially those with Argentine competitors, and fewer, but not better, variety shows than the private channels. Programs of news and commentary sometimes are dull, but are not sensational.

The two channels were the first state enterprises transferred to private investors by President Carlos Saul Menem’s administration, which is committed to divesting the telephone company, state airline, railroads and virtually any other public entity that can be sold or leased.

Menem said privatization means new investment, technology, enterprise, creativity and many other good things. What has happened at the two TV channels indicates that the rewards may be slow in coming.

Editorial Atlantida, Argentina’s largest magazine publishing company, bought Channel 11 for $8.2 million. Company President Pedro Simoncini said the station had debts of $27 million and obsolete equipment that must be replaced.

Artear, owner of the mass circulation newspaper Clarin, bought Channel 13 for $5.6 million. Jose Demaria, the program director said $8 million more must be spent on new equipment alone.

Each channel has cut its staff to about 250 people, the approximate level of the private station, Channel 9, that regularly leads in ratings and profit.

Executives at both of the new private channels say they are losing money, and attribute most of the losses to a recession that has cut advertising revenue, forcing stations to broadcast only about 12 hours a day. Resources for new programs are scarce.

The lineups on all private channels are about the same.

Soccer matches are a mainstay, along with international sports events involving Argentine stars--Gabriela Sabatini in tennis, for instance; boxer Martin Coggi, and Daniel Scioli in motorboat racing.

Series imports from the United States are big. “Miami Vice” and “Platoon” placed in the top five recently.

Locally produced variety shows feature arm wrestling, scantily clad women, men wearing dresses and makeup, tango singers and comedy skits with suggestive punchlines.

In one popular show, women stand in a transparent booth and grab money blown about by a fan that also lifts their skirts.

News programs tend to be sensational: bloody crimes, political scandals, fires, accidents, personal tragedies. Political satire and interviews as likely to be dull as incisive.

Shows for children are “short on ideas and repetitive,” the magazine Noticias said. U.S.-made cartoons are shown so often that children know the endings in advance.