Luiz Peres-Tolon, director of production and development at Discovery Latin America, opened the debate on co-production at the 4th Brazil Programming & Production Forum on Wednesday, May 7. He said Discovery LA seeks regional productions for exhibition by all units of the network in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia. "Our corporate mission is to work with local producers but on productions that have universal penetration," he said, explaining how projects are selected and paid for. "How much we offer for content that interests us depends on production cost and how many of our units want it," he said. In Brazil the idea is to use the 3% fund set up for this purpose.
Leticia Muhana, a director of Brazil's GNT channel, said 25% of the local content exhibited by the channel is independently produced. The channel airs five and a half hours of Brazilian content per week, always at prime time, she said.
Programming
