Over the past month several decisions have taken place in Brazil and Mexico which may have a significant impact on panregional cable advertising (understood as cable buys targeting Latin American audiences by agencies and advertisers based in the U.S., mostly in Miami).
In Brazil, law 12.485/11 was recently signed. The new law could affect the way pan-regional advertising time is purchased outside of Brazil.
As it is already known by many observers of the panregional advertising and media sector, the implication of the already effective new law is that all forms of media, including cable TV advertising, must be placed through a Brazilian owned and Ancine recognized advertising agency. Ancine is the National Film Agency in Brazil and responsible for promoting and regulating the Brazilian film and video industries.
With this new Brazilian law the role of regional media buying and placement agencies that purchase Brazilian cable advertising may be affected. It has to be noted that most of the large Miami based media agencies (e.g. Omnicom, MEC, MPG) do have Brazilian subsidiaries. Going forward, Miami based regional media agency headquarters may tend gravitate towards a more planning and coordinating role and de-emphasize media buying.
Televisa decision in Mexico
In Mexico, Televisa has forced several major cable networks to reduce their commercial time on all Televisa controlled pay TV systems to 6 minutes each and every hour. While the Brazilian action is legal, the Televisa decision seems to have a mostly commercial nature.
Portada expects, panregional cable advertising to grow by 7.2% to US $177 million in 2011. Panregional cable advertising amounts to 53.2% of total panregional advertising, which Portada expects to reach US $358 million In 2011 versus US $333 million in 2010. (More info in Portada´s 2011 Panregional Advertising and Media Report).
Portada is going to keep you posted about how the story develops and its implications.
