May 2014 34 The Oscars on LATAM TV voiceovers in either Spanish or Portuguese. Marcel Vinay Sr. (currently a senior executive at Azteca) remembers acquiring live broadcast rights for Televisa in 1982, and according to Manuel Fraiz Grijalba, it reached Venezuela on his station, Venevision, in 1985. At that time, to alleviate collection problems, ABC Pictures International started to sub-license the Academy Awards show and for five years, starting in 1990, the Oscars telecasts were distributed by Pedro Leda in Argentina, while in Brazil they were handled by agent Herbert Richers. By 1996, when Disney bought ABC, the studio began to license the Academy Awards directly to TV networks worldwide under their Buena Vista International Television banner, by combining the ABC and Buena Vista distribution stream under one company. In January 2001 it was announced that Walt Disney TV International-Latin America distributed the Academy Awards to Latin America under Fernando Barbosa’s sales team. In 2007 the distributor was rebranded as Disney–ABC International Television and in 2011 was renamed Disney Media Distribution (DMD). Today, the LATAMdivision of DMD, DisneyMedia Networks Latin America (or DMNLA), licenses the Oscars to all LATAM territories. The Oscars were always very important to LATAM broadcasters because they were transmitted in the same time zone as the U.S., and thus aired live. The arrival of the pay-TV movie channels in LATAM boosted demand for the Academy Awards, and in some territories, the live event moved away from free TV. In the U.S., the three-and-a-half-hour 2014 awards show was a success with advertisers as well, who paid a record $1.8 million for a 30-second commercial spot (a nine percent increase over last year). In 2011, when the most recent records are available, the Oscars generated $90 million for the Academy, mostly paid by ABC (for rights to the telecast) and Disney Media Distribution for international sales to some 190 countries and territories around the world, generating audiences estimated on par with the recent Summer Olympics Closing Ceremonies (778 million) and the World Cup finals (638 million). By Dom Serafini The Oscars telecast was a success with TV audiences from the very start. In 1954 the 26th Academy Awards show was reportedly also broadcast via kinescope in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the station owned by Brazilian publisher and TV pioneer Assis Chateaubriand (right). In 1953, the 25th annual Academy Awards ceremony was broadcast live nationally in the U.S. and Canada, while in Mexico it was telecast the following night Reportedly, the model for the 1928 Oscar statuette, by sculptor George Stanley, was Mexican film director and actor Emilio “El Indio” Fernández. The Force is With Disney In addition to distributing the Oscars, Disney Media Distribution Latin America is highlighting a number of Star Wars titles, including Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace, which sees Jedi apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jimm encounter nineyear-old Anakin Skywalker, a slave who is unusually strong in the Force. Anakin wins his freedom and sets out to be trained as a Jedi. In their home of Naboo, Anakin, the two Jedi and the young Queen Amidala must fight off a deadly enemy named Darth Maul, and they realize that this invasion is the first step in a sinister scheme of the re-emergent forces of darkness known as the Sith. The saga continues with Star Wars Episode II The Clone Wars, which picks up 10 years after the invasion of Naboo. The galaxy is about to break out into a civil war as thousands of solar systems threaten to break away from the Galactic Republic under the leadership of a renegade Jedi. Anakin Skywalker is assigned to protect the former Queen of Naboo, and soon discovers that he has a dark side. In Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith, theCloneWars arewreakinghavoc on the galaxy, and Anakin is asked to spy for both the Jedi and the traitorous Chancellor Palpatine, and he pledges himself to the evil Darth Sidous, becoming Darth Vader. Thebattle for thegalaxy intensifies inStar Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Imperial Forces attack the Rebel Alliance, and Han Solo and Princess Leia escape to Cloud City, where they are captured by Darth Vader. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker heads to themysterious planet of Dagobah, where the Jedi Master Yoda teaches him about the Force. Disney also presents Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi, in which Darth Vader prepares the second Death Star to unleash the final blow against the Rebel Alliance. Luke Skywalker joins forces with R2-D2, C-3PO and Princess Leia to free his friend Han Solo, who is imprisoned by the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance when Luke and Darth Vader face off. (Continued from Page 32)
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