Young media entrepreneurs are reshaping the way content in the media is created and delivered in Chile. They are new faces that are unafraid to criticise the current system and voices of a generation that is changing the way people consume information.
“Here begins Demasiado Tarde”. Every night, Nicolás Copano opens his program in Santiago, Chile with the same catchphrase. Only 26 years old, he is the young host of prestigious late night show Demasiado Tarde (Too Late) partnering with Google and CNN. But their live show is not broadcasted on any TV channel, you can only watch it online.
Copano leads a group of young journalists who are changing the rules of the game in the Chilean media. His production company El Grupo is one of only five validated by YouTube for Latin America and he has anchored streaming broadcast events such as Lollapalooza Chile –the Chilean version of one of the most important music festivals in the world. The main difference between him and traditional journalists is that he actually owns his show. “I noticed four or five years ago that I could be a media partner and not an employee,” Copano says.
Demasiado Tarde has a business model which has been very successful up to now. Its main revenues are from advertising: Copano explains that the companies pay almost the same than in TV: in prime time, for example, one single commercial could cost almost €7.000 for 30 second. The difference is that the companies enjoy advertising not only in the show, but also in social media like Twitter and Facebook.
Copano is a reflection of the new generation of young Chileans. In 2011, the country was rocked by the largest protests in 20 years of democracy: hundreds of thousands of students questioned the economic and social development of the state. Copano took the role of spokesman of a new platform. “Our average viewer age is only 22 years,” he says. The same age as his team, with most of them being young students. His show is seen live by 20,000 fans every night. But it adds its network of 500 thousand followers on Twitter to reaching your comments and the highlights of each program. “We are the only Latin American internet startup channel. For us, the main focus is online”, he says.
Working with new ideas
A decade before Copano, another group of young people followed a similar path. Alvaro Diaz, Pedro Peirano and Juan Manuel Egaña founded Aplaplac in 2002, a production company with the idea of creating content for TV. Their ideas were promoted too risky for market parameters. In 2003, they proposed a children’s news program hosted by puppets, but with strong irony and addressing issues considered adult: allegations of damage to the environment, human rights and social criticism to a market-oriented system. “Children watched a lot of TV, therefore already seeing news.” The proposal was not accepted by the channel. However, they won a millionaire fund awarded by National Television Council, a state institution focused on supporting new projects that allowed the production and broadcasting of the show.
Their program, called 31 Minutos (31 Minutes), soon became an unexpected success. Not only for its ratings, but because it became a symbol of a generation of children. It had one of the most viewed Internet pages of the country at a time when it was unusual for programs to have an online presence. The soundtrack of the series became the best selling album of Chile of the last decade. The program was sold to Nickelodeon channels and other countries such as Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia and Panama. They even had a film distributed to Latin America in 2007, which costed €2 millon, the biggest budget for a Chilean movie at that moment. Last year, the children’s program was presented at the Festival de Vina del Mar, Chile’s most prestigious event. It achieved the highest rating of the year: 53% of viewers in the country saw the show. “Originality is fundamental, if you don’t have a dynamic trial and error system, you will succumb to the very first problem”, Diaz says.
Originality to change
Both Copano and the creators of 31 Minutos believe that in an atmosphere of change in the Chilean media, young voices have much more space to contribute. “Our audience is born after the Pinochet dictatorship. It is a generation unafraid to say its opinion. It’s like the public of Egypt, Syria and Libya: a new voice”, Copano says. Diaz believes that taking a stand is a factor that cannot be absent in the new media: “Neutrality is a bad idea. If humanity and programs have special features, they become more attractive”.
But the greatest contribution of this new generation is the diversity of ideas they bring and the quest for a brand new model of media. “The new audience is already leaving to see television,” poses Copano. “It’s an audience that when leaving university, is not going to buy an expensive TV, but an expensive computer. That’s the difference”.
By Sebastian Rivas, Chile
Photo: APLAPLAC
