Netflix Comes to Town: Students Investigate Latin American Media Industries

In 2020, following a steadily growing presence in Latin America, Netflix announced it would officially base its regional operations in Mexico City. Since the middle of the twentieth century, however, the capital of Mexico has been a central hub for the production of telenovelas, newscasts and variety shows. Televisa, the largest broadcasting company in the country, located in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Mexico City, has remained a powerhouse of Spanish-language content, creating shows that have traveled the Americas.

BUT NOW THAT NETFLIX IS IN TOWN, HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?

A course taught last semester by Annenberg Assistant Professor Juan Llamas-Rodriguez, titled Before Netflix: The Past and Present of Latin American Television, asked that question — whether streaming platforms like Netflix have (or have not) disrupted the longstanding practices of the Latin American television mediascape.

Students read economic, social and cultural studies of television, while keeping a journal about their own watching habits. Excitingly, the class ended with a trip to Mexico City, where students were able to visit television studios, including Televisa.

“[This class] was a foundational learning experience on the history of television and its intercultural and political implications in Latin American media,” said third-year English and Communication major Luiza Louback Fontes. “Traveling to Mexico and engaging directly with studios and professionals made the class even more immersive, giving me a deeper understanding of how television is both produced and consumed across borders.”

“Studying television means learning about the changing practices of watching television. While nowadays we are used to the binge model popularized by Netflix, in class we aimed to replicate historical modes of viewership,” said Llamas-Rodriguez.

Alongside reading scholars like Stuart Hall, students participated in innovative classroom activities before they even left Philadelphia. One class had them split into groups and provide subtitles for a scene from a Spanish-language show. The exercise not only taught them how to use subtitling software but also sparked interesting discussions about the act of translation.

Students were also asked to watch telenovelas, shows many grew up watching with their families, and to keep a journal while they did it. However, they were instructed to watch the shows in a way that’s unfamiliar for many undergraduates: only one episode a day. And if they missed a day, they missed the episode, as if it was airing on the television of the past — a stark contrast to today’s Netflix viewing habits, which often emphasize binge-watching and “ambient” viewing.

“Studying television means learning about the changing practices of watching television. While nowadays we are used to the binge model popularized by Netflix, in class we aimed to replicate historical modes of viewership,” said Llamas-Rodriguez about the assignment. “Many students observed how quickly the telenovela became part of their daily routine and how this familiarity increased their investment in the series — an insight that audience reception histories demonstrate was central to the popularity of early television.”

In mid-May, students set off to Mexico to see the industry they had studied all semester long. The trip included visits to five Mexico City studios, several of which had contracts with Netflix. Students met with producers, acting students, special effects supervisors, and diversity and inclusion consultants, and saw sets, post-production workshops and even a few active productions.

One of the producers they met with, Pedro Ortiz de Pinedo, specialized in “youth telenovelas,” a genre that, despite its focus on young audiences, still leans on the same formulas telenovelas have used for decades. Students were eager to learn how these shows are being written in the twenty-first century, while still maintaining the familiarity of the shows they grew up on. Moments like these combined the interests of students hoping to pursue careers in the industry after graduation and those who were simply curious to gain a broader understanding of Latin American television. The trip offered valuable lessons and opportunities for both groups.

“I grew up watching telenovelas, and taking this class gave me the chance to critically analyze a medium that had always been part of my life,” said Louback.

This course, one of the first for Annenberg, was a Penn Global Seminar. It combined intensive semester-long study with a short-term travel component fully sponsored by Penn Abroad.