Our guest post from this month comes from Omar Mendez. Omar is a media journalist and editor specialized in the television and telecommunications markets. For the past 26 years, he has been Director and Editor of a number of industry-focused publications and online media for the Americas region.
Television productions have skyrocketed for natural reasons: more screens generate more demand, and therefore, there’s need for more supply. Broadcasters across the globe are adapting their business models and entertainment offerings in order to reach their viewers on any screen and to compete with their OTT rivals. Today, however, in the ongoing battle of the screens and viewers’ eyeballs, offering a catch-up or VOD library is simply not enough. Latin America is no exception to this phenomenon with major networks turning toward original programming in the hope of gaining a competitive advantage.
Networks like HBO Latin America, a regional branch of American premium cable and satellite television, doubled its production of original content this year alone, under a co-production model with local companies. They recently presented a new drama series in Brazil –their favorite place to create new content– called A vida secreta dos casais, set for release in 2017. They also set in motion new seasons for O Negocio and Magnifica 70, which are currently in development.
HBO Latin America also confirmed new seasons for two series, Psi and El Hipnotizador, which will begin production this month in Brazil and Uruguay respectively.
The third season of PSI will include ten new episodes. The second season of El Hipnotizador will have eight episodes. Both titles are highly successful among audiences, and have also received international praise. PSI obtained two International Emmy nominations in 2015. El Hipnotizador, on the other hand, received the most awards for a HBO series, with five Bronze Tellys in 2016. All Brazilian productions are filmed in Portuguese.
Mexico is also a hub for original creations and talent for the network. This country produced the show Sr. Ávila, new episodes of Dios Inc. and also developed a groundbreaking new format, Chumel con Chumel Torres, a weekly comedy cycle, considered to be the first of its genre, in which they talk about their political background, from Mexico to all of Latin America.
Argentina is also a laboratory in which original ideas and stories are created for the Miami based network. On August 20th, they presented the series El Jardín de Bronce, which will be developed alongside the Argentinian production house, Pol-Ka, beginning in late August up until next November. This was actually the country where HBO began its ongoing process of creating original content in Latin America, starting in 2004 with the series Epitafios.
Colombia is also a place where the network does co-productions. This time, they co-produced a brand new series, Guerras Ajenas, set to be released next year.
Though all those Latin American productions are originally created in Spanish and Portuguese, they don’t just stay in their own territories. HBO Latin America has an agreement with Telemundo Internacional, the content-sales branch of the American network Telemundo, which allows for all its creations to be offered to other networks around the world.
FOX Networks Group (FNG) Latin America is another group that decided to create original content in Spanish for Latin America. Last month, for example, they finished filming the first season of 2091, a new original sci-fi series, with 13 one-hour-long episodes, set to be released in Latin America next October.
Produced by Fox Telecolombia, owned by FOX, and aiming to have a cinematographic feel to it, the series was directed by Colombian director Felipe Martínez, who also worked on Cumbia Ninja (another original series in Spanish created by the network), and Mexican director Álvaro Curiel, best known for his film Acorazado.
FNG Latin America also has upcoming new original productions, such as premium content based on true stories like Uno Contra Todos and Me Chama de Bruna, as well as new seasons and local versions of non-scripted cycles, notably Lucky Ladies and Escuela para Maridos, plus factual content such as Alerta Aeropuerto.
Interest in creating more original Latin American content than ever before is also evident in FOX Network Group that announced a new project in January, a wide gathering entitled Fox Producciones Originales, which aims to boost creativity and find groundbreaking content in that region. By the time the gathering of local talents ended, over 1900 projects were registered, submitted by scrip writers, independent producers and production companies from Latin America.
This September, they will finish selecting those that will make it to the next step, the “pitch” stage, where they’ll have the opportunity to present their projects in detail and in person in Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Santiago de Chile, Ciudad de Mexico, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Selected projects will begin production in 2017, with the support of FOX.
HBO Latin America and FOX Network Latin America are two great examples of a clear trend. Never before have we seen so much interest in creating original content by such big networks. But they are not the only ones. Many of the major Latin American broadcasters, as well as the new OTT players who are trying to enter more and more countries within the region, are looking to make more titles of their own. All these productions, once they get released in the region, will surely be distributed internationally once adapted.
Who are the other production groups that are interested in creating content? We’ll talk about that in a following post.
