Ex-Telefe Execs in New Venture

BUENOS AIRES: Bernarda Llorente and Claudio Villarruel, formerly at Argentine broadcaster Telefe, have set up a new content venture.

Villaruel and Llorente left their posts as artistic and programming directors at Telefe in December. At the broadcasting group they had founded Telefe Contenidos, which turned out such hits as Montecristo, Vidas Robadas and Resistiré. Their mini-series Televisión por la identidad, picked up an International Emmy is 2008.

Commenting on his time at Telefe, Villaruel said: "I would highlight the fact that we could offer the audience programs in which we run risks without losing massiveness. An example of that are fictions that by addressing the darkest and painful issues in Argentine history helped to find 10 of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo grandchildren that were kidnapped during the military dictatorship. These facts somehow make TV becomes a great social tool. I consider a great team achievement the ability to put together a much more balanced grid: focusing on contents rather than on celebrities. Furthermore, we were able to bring male audience to our nocturnal telenovelas. We also were the first producers to adapt Hollywood sitcoms into local versions such as The Nanny and Married with Children. As to game shows, we created, together with Win TV, Justo a tiempo a simple but successful prime time daily format."

On the establishment of ON TV, Villarruel said: "It was the time to dare to change and face a new challenge. We felt that 10 years of management were enough and that we needed to redirect all our energy towards creativity. Nowadays we are producing contents for the Argentine market as well as original contents for the international one. We don’t want to restrict our products only to TV, and we do so by conceiving them from scratch to fit multiplatforms available in the market. We believe our competitive advantage is our ten-year experience as programmers and producers. Naturally, when we analyze a content we do it by taking into account its production possibilities but also the existing programming needs."

Llorente added: "I strongly believe that braveness, passion and adrenalin were this change’s engine. That was how ON TV Llorente y Villarruel Contenidos came to life."