U.S. boosts entertainment exports to Latin America

   The U.S. government on Friday signed an Export Trade Certificate of Review for the Latin American Multichannel Advertising Council (LAMAC), which will set the framework for an export joint venture of seven American entertainment firms to boost their exports to Latin America.
   “This is an important step toward realizing the tremendous export potential for U.S. producers of Spanish-language content,” said U.S. Commerce Department Undersecretary for International Trade Francisco Sánchez, in a statement. “The Central and South America region will be the strongest growth market for entertainment and media — with a compounded annual growth rate in excess of 10 percent through 2015.”
   The United States is a leader in creative content, offering a large selection of movies, TV shows, and other Spanish and Portuguese-language programming. The companies benefiting from the Export Trade Certificate of Review will capture a large part of the Latin American TV advertising dollar.
   “As advertising revenue grows for these LAMAC companies, the opportunity for U.S. filmed content is likely to expand,” Sánchez said. “This will benefit not only the big U.S. studios, but the hundreds of independent film and TV production houses.”
   The certificate will allow LAMAC members to exchange information regarding all aspects of foreign market conditions and viewership, collect and disseminate foreign market research and analysis, and engage in joint promotional activities aimed at developing export markets.  
   LAMAC members include Discovery Latin America, Fox Latin American Channel, NGC Networks Latin America, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America, A&E Mundo, History Channel Latin America, and E! Entertainment Television Latin America Partners.
   The Export Trade Certificate of Review program helps U.S. firms improve their export competitiveness by giving them legal preclearance to coordinate with one another as an export joint venture. Export joint ventures under the program are typically organized along industry clusters and often involve competing domestic companies. There are currently 70 certificates with about 2,500 firms participating in the program. In 2010, exports associated with these certificates totaled an estimated $19.6 billion, the Commerce Department said.