Mexico's Televisa revamps prime time with new shows

By Cyntia Barrera Diaz

MEXICO CITY, May 2 (Reuters) - Hot women with potty mouths, a kick-fighting hero, ghosts and a hapless comedian are Televisa's prime time bets this year as the Mexican broadcaster debuts four new series for young audiences.

Using product placement and subjects like sex and drug trafficking, Televisa hopes to raise its profile among advertisers by luring in the coveted 18 to 44 demographic.

In two weeks, the four new series -- of 13, half-hour episodes each -- will air on Televisa's Channel 5, which has national coverage.

Additionally, Televisa will create side products, including comic books, exclusive behind-the-scenes content for the Internet, blogs, music and DVD sets based on the new series that will be sold through other business units.

Jose Baston, corporate vice-president of Televisa (TV.N) (TLVACPO.MX), told reporters on Wednesday that the new series will be offered to its U.S. partner Univision Communications Inc. (UVV.N) as part of the long-term programming deal they both share, which expires in 2017.

However, the Internet content -- to be aired through a newly created site -- will be blocked to all U.S.-based visitors as the two companies have a pending legal fight regarding Televisa's right to air its content online in the United States.

Televisa failed to buy out Univision last year after losing a bidding war against a group of investors led by media mogul Haim Saban. The Mexican company recently sold its stake in its U.S. partner and got $1 billion for it.

Televisa is also working on three other original series that it may debut on pay television later this year, Baston added. The company has a satellite television business, SKY, and a cable company, Cablevision.

Baston said Televisa will hold the rights to all new shows and the idea is to sell them to other countries in Latin America, or the United States, in the future.

"Breaking into the Anglo market is very difficult," Baston said. "But we have U.S. companies looking at scripts," he added without elaborating.

HOT PIZZA AND CAPOEIRA

"Sexo y Otros Secretos" (Sex and Other Secrets) puts women in the driver's seat. Five friends, including a single mom and the young lover of a man who is already spoken for, try to balance married life, or a lack of it, with family and jobs.

"Is it hot ... and hard?," asks one of the characters of a cute, clueless pizza delivery boy about half her age as she opens the door to pick up the order.

The show has a bit of "Sex and the City" and "Desperate Housewives" and will likely become the most talked-about show in a deeply Catholic, macho country where abortion and same-sex marriages were just recently legalized in the capital city.

Televisa's "Miedos" (Fears) plays with elements from "The Twilight Zone" and "CSI" by choosing gloomy, dark atmospheres where corpses, ghosts and unusual plot twists will keep viewers on tenterhooks.

In "El Pantera" (The Panther), the broadcaster rescues the tradition of old-school heroes that use their wit and fists to fight the bad guys.

The opening scenes of this series bring to mind "The Crow," as Pantera goes after Baboon, the drug dealer who brutally killed his girlfriend, using capoeira, the acrobatic Brazilian martial art he learned while serving time in jail.

Pantera widely addresses the problem of drug-trafficking, which has plagued Mexico and led to the gory deaths of over 900 people in the last four months, according to media reports.

For comedy, Televisa picked "Y ahora ... que hago?" (Now what?), using Adal Ramones, the broadcaster's best-known funnyman, as the main character of the show.

Baston said all four series will be sandwiched between new episodes of well-known U.S. hit shows, like "House," "Nip/Tuck," "Heroes" and "Law and Order." This will guarantee the broadcaster, and advertisers, a solid audience for at least two hours.