(22 July 2005 9:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Reed Midem is launching a new event - the telenovelas screenings. The screenings will coincide with Mipcom and Mipcom Junior in October.

Telenovelas have been a successful fiction genre for decades with a love theme drawn from daily life that has been familiar to TV viewers across all of Latin America.

Each year more than 500 telenovelas series are produced for a global audience of more than 2 billion, points out an official statement.

"The telenovelas industry is a great business generating more than $ 130 million a year for many international TV stations in Europe, the United States and Asia," says Reed Midem television division director Paul Johnson.

"Telenovelas are now starting to also become part of the cross media landscape with developments in branded content, merchandising/ licensing and mobile. The telenovelas screenings will bring together all international buyers from this successful TV genre and showcase the latest stories as well as having a few of the most popular stars on hand," adds Johnson.

For this first edition, Reed Midem has tied up with ten of the major players in this genre: TV Azteca (Mexico), Televisa (Mexico), TV Globo (Brazil), Venevision (Venezuela), Tepuy (Spain), Telefe (Argentina), RCTV (Venezuela), RCN (Colombia), Artear (Argentina) and Caracol (Colombia), states the media release.

The screenings will take place on 16 October in the Noga Hilton Hotel in Cannes. All programmes presented in the telenovelas screenings will be presented in a digital format.