By Charles Newbery for Variety.comBUENOS AIRES -- Nicolas Batlle is a busy man, a good thing for any producer in Argentina, where 25% annual inflation and a tight broadcast market makes it hard to get by.
Batlle, who previously dealt mostly in film, this year produced school drama "Entre horas" and human rights docu "Espacio de memoria" through his Magoya Films, and executive-produced medical drama "El Paraiso" with production shingle Zoelle.
"It is much more than we've produced for TV in previous years," he says. The smallscreen supplement came from a state initiative to finance indie programs to fill the slates of pubcasters -- and eventually a state DTT network -- spawning the production of 220 series in 2011; an estimated 300 are in the pipeline for this year.
"This is helping provide work while the film industry is slow," says Vanessa Ragone, who produced Oscar-winning "The Secret in Their Eyes," and is working on body-parts trafficking drama "Organ & Co." for one of the pubcasters, most likely the biggest, Canal 7.
One of the reasons the pubcasting initiative is so welcome is that top broadcasters El Trece and Telefe produce... Read Full Article
