Telefe Notches Up Deals, Builds Catalogue

BUENOS AIRES, February 20:
Telefe International has shored up a range of new deals on key titles like Montecristo, and has added a new title to its slate: Romeo
and Juliet, a telenovela
adaptation by Wild Angel’s Raul
Lecouna of the classic tale.

Montecristo, produced by Telefe Contenidos, was recently sold
to Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, the Philippines and
Israel, adding to the almost 40 territories that acquired the hit novela last
year. Further, local versions are in the works for Spain, Colombia, Italy and
Portugal, where SIC is launching the show next week.

Telefe International also
clinched Central European deals on Laura's Secrets, Love's Guard, Máximo in my Heart
and Dr. Miniature, among
others. Further, working with ELG, Tiny Angels has sold to Spain. And in Russia, A Media has shot
a pilot based on Telefe’s novela Pretenders.

A new addition to Telefe’s
catalogue is Romeo and Juliet,
featuring scenes shot in Verona and Madrid as it tells the tale of two young
lovers, Julieta Caporale and Romeo Montero. The series soon launches in
Argentina on Channel 9. The cast includes Elias Viñoles and Brenda Gandini.

“2006 has been the best of
the last five years in Telefe International, because we have exceeded our
expectations by 20 to 25 percent,” said Alejandro Parra, the international
business director of Telefe. “Even though we
had quite an aggressive budget for 2006, we had exceeded it. We are very proud
of the success and the excellent reception our products have, and we hope to
continue this way during the whole year.”