I n Chapter 6, I pointed out how production of some genres, such as telen

ovelas, had changed over time in several of the countries examined. This chapter continues to focus on television production and producers in terms of globalization, U.S. dominance, transnationalization, localization, and delocalization. The uneven flow of television programs between countries has received considerable attention for decades. In this chapter, I argue that apart from the flow of television programming between countries, there is an even more important flow between countries of genres and models, or

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The conceptual development of this chapter owes a great deal to several colleagues and students, specifically Luiz Duarte (Ph.D., Michigan State University) and Martha Fuentes and Dan Abram (University of Texas, Austin). As with most large empirical projects, the data reported in this chapter resulted from substantial amounts of work by collaborators, including Patricia McCormick

(Howard University), Consuelo Campbell (Michigan State University), Sug-Min Youn (Seoul National University), Nobuya Inagaki (University of Texas), Luisa Ha

(University of Oklahoma), Seema Shrikhande (Oglethorpe University), and Michael Elasmar (Boston University).

1 68 Chapter 7 patterns, for creating television programming. The use of foreign models

seems to have accelerated with increasing transnational trade in the past few years of licensed formats such as Survivor, Popstars, or Big Brother, which are produced in dozens of countries (Moran, 2004).

Genre Imperialism? For many writers on media imperialism, foreign models for television were

one major form of media imperialism (Lee, 1 980). This line of analysis focuses on the political economy of importing system-level models, such as

commercial versus public service broadcasting organizational forms. This is clearly important to program and genre choices. Countries that adopt a commercial model tend to use certain kinds of program forms or genres and neglect or even avoid others. Media imperialism analysis (Oliveira, 1 993), however, may overstate somewhat the power of imported genres in terms of what they bring to the importing culture or television system. In dealing with the complexity of a cultural system like television, media imperialism expla nations are often linear, emphasizing the determining power of the imported television form on the local cultural industry and the audience. Oliveira ( 1 993), for example, argued that the commercial nature of imported genres overpowered the local aspects of culture inserted into the television program forms, even when the imported genre was transformed from soap opera to telenovela, for example.

The goal of this chapter is fivefold: First, I will continue to examine the flow of television programs among broadcast television producers and the most widely viewed stations (those with at least a 5 % share of the broad

cast audience), focusing in this chapter on global flows, U.S. exports, and flows among geocultural regions and transnational cultural-linguistic mar

kets. Second, I will also broadly discuss how media genres and formats flow globally. Building on that, I will discuss how genre flows might best be the orized and understood, focusing in particular on complexity theory and hybridization. Third, I will look at the shift from informal copying of gen res and programs to the increasingly formal business of legally licensing packaged television formats. Fourth, I ask how local or national producers delocalize their productions, or distance them from their original locations of production, to make them more saleable or acceptable across cultural borders (lwabuchi, 2002). Fifth, I look at how global or transnational pro grammers begin to localize their production to make it fit the huge variety of world television cultural spaces and markets (Chalaby, 2002, 2005c).

TV Exporters 169

Genres Flowed Before Programs In the 1 950s, before the actual recording and flow of programs between

countries was facilitated by cinescopes and videotape, there was already

a flow of genres and genre ideas between countries. As soon as countries began to buy television production and reception equipment, they began to

look for and borrow ideas about how to make and program television. In one example from Brazil, a radio and television entrepreneur named Assis

Chateaubriand decided to start television in Sao Paulo in 1 950. The first day's broadcast was full of opening spectacles and ceremonies. Reportedly,

the next day the Brazilian staff turned to the U.S. RCA technicians who had installed the equipment and said, "What do we do next?"

Scripts for television programs such as dramas and soap operas were sold across borders, as described in Chapter 6 for Latin American telenovelas. Ideas for genre developments were "borrowed" and deliberately glocalized. Scriptwriters, directors, and entrepreneurs moved between countries. They

had to adapt to new cultures, blending and hybridizing. In this chapter,

I focus on the reverse process, the deliberate disembedding of a cultural product or genre from its culture, so that it can be exported.

I n Chapter 6, I pointed out how production of some genres, such as telen