Americans will soon be able to watch Cuban TV from their living rooms

Americans will soon be able to watch Cuban TV from their living rooms

Americans will soon be able to watch Cuban telenovelas, documentaries,
music video clips and much more on their own TV sets. But no news or
overt politics.
NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
ngameztorres@elnuevoherald.com

Most Cubans on the island prefer television series and movies made in
the USA to escape a state-controlled television system they deem as
boring, but one new U.S. channel will become the first totally dedicated
to transmitting programs made in Cuba.

CubaMax TV will carry not just programs produced by state TV but also
will transmit a broad range of movies and documentaries, many of them
created independently by Cubans on the island and around the world, said
Miguel Martín López, a representative of Idaobex Living, which acquired
the rights to the Cuban content.

The satellite channel, which will transmit 24 hours a day, seeks to be
"a window on Cuban culture," said Alfredo Rodríguez, vice president of
DishLatino, which has the exclusive rights to carry the channel starting
this week.

CubaMax TV "allows the discovery of all Cuban culture at the level of
audiovisuals because, even though people don't know it, Cuba produces
many telenovelas, series for kids and teenagers, and this is a different
way to look at Cuba," Martín told el Nuevo Herald.

"It is a culturally open product that crosses borders. It's not just
Cuba but also Miami and any person who wants to [make a program] can do
it," he added, announcing that Cuban artists in Miami already have
contacted the channel to provide programs with local content. "That's
also the idea of the channel, and it's an idea that was very well
received because it establishes a bridge between the two cultures."

CubaMax TV and DishLatino will celebrate the start of the transmissions
with a private reception Thursday night at the Olympia Theater with a
guest appearance by Luis Silva, the actor who plays the main role of
Panfilo in Vivir del Cuento, the most popular and sometimes
politically-tinged comedy show on the island.

The title for Thursday's event: "From Havana to Little Havana."

Experts said it was only a matter of time before media companies show
interest in the distribution of Cuban cultural productions in the U.S.,
particularly with the avalanche of celebrities rushing to the island
after nearly half a century of estrangement between the two countries.

"This opportunity comes at an interesting time for filmmakers in Cuba,
when we can appreciate much better the corpus of films made outside the
official industry, through mechanisms of production and distribution
absolutely new to the country," said Cuba-based film critic Juan Antonio
García Borrero.

García Borrero noted that the existence of this new TV channel would
also help to build a "more direct and transparent relationship between
the two countries."

Idaobex Living, a Spanish company that buys and sells the rights to
audiovisual content, created a U.S. branch that will administer the
channel, under the direction of well-known Cuban actress Amarilys Nuñez

Martín said that 60 percent of the channel's content comes from RTV
Comercial, the state agency that markets Cuba's audiovisual products.
The rest are documentaries that, for example, have been shown at
festivals for young Cuban filmmakers, or movies, many of them filmed
outside the control of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Arts and
Industry (ICAIC) and even outside the island.

Rodríguez said his company has all the permits required to transmit the
content produced in Cuba. The Dish company has 14 million U.S.
subscribers and carries about 250 channels with international
programming. DishLatino, Rodríguez said, leads the market of English and
Spanish television "packages."

Although Cuban television still generally transmits with standard
definition, the latest telenovela acquired for the new channel, Latidos
Compartidos — or Shared Heartbeats — was produced in high definition in
2015.

Martín added that CubaMax TV already has obtained the rights to 200
Cuban movies, and its daily programming will include two movies and up
to three telenovelas per day.

Cuban filmmaker Ian Padrón, who now lives in South Florida, said that
while the new channel might bring "a little more exposure" to Cuban
directors who live on the island, the channel will have to reinvest the
profits in new productions in order to make an impact.

"If there are not a lot of new productions, a channel can transmit all
the Cuban programming of the last five years in just three or four
months, and then it will start to show Cuban movie classics and archival
materials," he said.

U.S. embargo laws, however, bar the advance financing of such projects
in Cuba. Idaobex Living can only buy them once they are finished, said
Martín of Idaobex Living.

A channel focused on entertainment and culture

The promoters of the new channel insisted that the content will not be
political.

"The channel will not carry news. It will be pure entertainment and
nothing more," Rodríguez said. "There are no ideological programs. That
is something we are stressing in our advertising."

But audiences may read politics into some of what they see.

The Cuban government has been highly effective at injecting propaganda
and ideology into state-controlled products, including literature,
movies and especially television programs, but some directors, writers
and others have managed to slip criticisms of the Cuban reality into
their work, provoking some high-profile cases of censorship.

The most popular comedy program on the island, Vivir del Cuento — Living
by One's Wit — where President Barack Obama made an appearance when he
visited Havana in March, has won big audiences for its sharp criticisms
of the economy, the absurd bureaucracy and the vulnerability of elderly
Cubans who depend on meager state pensions. The show will be carried by
CubaMax TV.

"It has a very special kind of humor, which can be said to be critical,
to open the eyes of the Cubans," Rodríguez said.

Martín said his company will "filter the content" with "a lot of care to
avoid offending anyone." At the same time, he added, "we have included
documentaries on Los Aldeanos," a rap duo critical of the government, as
well as "independent documentaries."

The vice president of DishLatino also said the channel will be an
opportunity to show the world the artistic talent on the island, and
especially its musicians. He praised the quality of the music videos he
watched during the test period and praised artists who "are ready for
prime time." The channel will also transmit Sonando en Cuba — Popular in
Cuba" — a singing contest along the lines of American Idol and The Voice.

Many of the company's channels are aimed at specific markets or foreign
audiences that keep in contact with their home countries by television
and other media.

Rodríguez said CubaMax TV is not be directed at Cubans alone, but at
Hispanics in general and anyone else who "is interested or curious"
about the island.

But Martín said one key audience will be the new wave of Cubans that
started in 2000. Part of the channel's attraction will be its appeal to
"nostalgia" and the possibility of seeing actors they recognize while
also watching — for the first time — the same programs that their
relatives on the island have seen.

Source: DishLatino will offer Cuba TV broadcasts through CubaMax TV | In
Cuba Today - http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article83996167.html