After 12 seasons on linear TV, flagship Spanish talent show “Operación Triunfo,” produced by Banijay Iberia’s Gestmusic, has jumped successfully to the online environment via Prime Video.
“Operación Triunfo’s” first gala was the most viewed premiere in the history of Prime Video in Spain. Its app for voting accumulated 53 million votes and, on social networks, generated 718.9 million views in TikTok and YouTube, according to VOD analytics Sigmados30.
Since 2021, when Netflix teamed with Grupo iZen to launch “Insiders,” the streamer’s first Spanish Original reality show, the demand of unscripted content on the online platforms has been progressively increasing.
“Entertainment can be more cost effective for streamers than producing fiction,” argues iZen president Jose Velasco, who years ago produced the Spanish version of “Big Brother.”
“On part of the streamers this has also been an effect of shifting their focus. Now, entertainment and documentaries are new ways to attract the...
“Operación Triunfo’s” first gala was the most viewed premiere in the history of Prime Video in Spain. Its app for voting accumulated 53 million votes and, on social networks, generated 718.9 million views in TikTok and YouTube, according to VOD analytics Sigmados30.
Since 2021, when Netflix teamed with Grupo iZen to launch “Insiders,” the streamer’s first Spanish Original reality show, the demand of unscripted content on the online platforms has been progressively increasing.
“Entertainment can be more cost effective for streamers than producing fiction,” argues iZen president Jose Velasco, who years ago produced the Spanish version of “Big Brother.”
“On part of the streamers this has also been an effect of shifting their focus. Now, entertainment and documentaries are new ways to attract the...
- 4/5/2024
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Unveiling a raft of international shows at Mipcom, Newen Connect’s managing director Rodolphe Buet said the distribution arm of the TF1-owned company is seeing its business model go through “drastic changes” as it now plays a more central role in financing content.
In the next two years, Buet said roughly 70% of Newen Connect’s revenues will stem from content it pre-finances and/or co-produces, rather than licensing deals.
“We use to be gap deficit-ers, bringing minimum guarantees against rights for international. We’re now at the center of the equation, co-producing or co-financing to speed up the process of production,” said Buet, citing collaborations with in-house and third-party producers, alongside ongoing partnerships with TF1, Sweden’s TV4 and CMore, Germany’s Zdf and Amazon, among others.
Buet says partners have become “extremely conservative” in recent years and are on the lookout for existing IPs to limit risk. New players,...
In the next two years, Buet said roughly 70% of Newen Connect’s revenues will stem from content it pre-finances and/or co-produces, rather than licensing deals.
“We use to be gap deficit-ers, bringing minimum guarantees against rights for international. We’re now at the center of the equation, co-producing or co-financing to speed up the process of production,” said Buet, citing collaborations with in-house and third-party producers, alongside ongoing partnerships with TF1, Sweden’s TV4 and CMore, Germany’s Zdf and Amazon, among others.
Buet says partners have become “extremely conservative” in recent years and are on the lookout for existing IPs to limit risk. New players,...
- 10/18/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Few European arthouse-crossover film sales agents have better weathered the ebb and flow of international market dynamics than Madrid’s Latido Films, which turns 20 in 2023.
Proof of that came at April’s Platino Awards, where Latido scored six statuettes, split between an acting double for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” and four for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” which has already swept Spain’s Goya Awards and scored a French Cesar for foreign film.
Scoring €6.8 million ($7.5 million) in Spain, and 327,000 admissions in France, “The Beasts” also rates as one of the top-performing recent Spanish-language movies.
If Latido has survived for so long, insists director general Antonio Saura, it’s because of a core strategy of “working with talent, our search for talent.” Beyond that, other keys have been “collaboration with production companies that understand long-term relationships, and well-established relationships with clients.”
Companies with which Latido has held or holds...
Proof of that came at April’s Platino Awards, where Latido scored six statuettes, split between an acting double for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” and four for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” which has already swept Spain’s Goya Awards and scored a French Cesar for foreign film.
Scoring €6.8 million ($7.5 million) in Spain, and 327,000 admissions in France, “The Beasts” also rates as one of the top-performing recent Spanish-language movies.
If Latido has survived for so long, insists director general Antonio Saura, it’s because of a core strategy of “working with talent, our search for talent.” Beyond that, other keys have been “collaboration with production companies that understand long-term relationships, and well-established relationships with clients.”
Companies with which Latido has held or holds...
- 5/16/2023
- by John Hopewell and Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Spain’s Grupo iZen and Argentina-based Non Stop have launched Cacao & Cia, a new shingle aimed at producing content for the global Spanish-speaking market.
With offices in Madrid and Mexico, the joint venture will be headed by Non Stop’s Pedro Dávila, who will lead a creative team in close collaboration with Juliana Barrera from iZen in Madrid.
Among its first projects are biopics of celebrated Argentine Formula 1 race car driver Juan Manuel Fangio and legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. The latter is based on the book “Las verdades de Chavela” by Maria Cortina, which is being adapted by Arantxa Echevarría.
These projects define Cacao & Cia’s upcoming line of content reflecting strong IPs with protagonists closely linked to Latin America and with robust international appeal. This partnership between two strong players is crucial in a highly competitive marketplace where content demand is high, but more players have also jumped into the fray.
With offices in Madrid and Mexico, the joint venture will be headed by Non Stop’s Pedro Dávila, who will lead a creative team in close collaboration with Juliana Barrera from iZen in Madrid.
Among its first projects are biopics of celebrated Argentine Formula 1 race car driver Juan Manuel Fangio and legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. The latter is based on the book “Las verdades de Chavela” by Maria Cortina, which is being adapted by Arantxa Echevarría.
These projects define Cacao & Cia’s upcoming line of content reflecting strong IPs with protagonists closely linked to Latin America and with robust international appeal. This partnership between two strong players is crucial in a highly competitive marketplace where content demand is high, but more players have also jumped into the fray.
- 1/25/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Principal photography is underway on police thriller “Memento Mori” from one of Spain’s biggest production shingles, Zebra Productions, part of Grupo iZen, which presented its upcoming series “Tenorio” at Iberseries’ Co-Production & Financing Forum on Sept. 28.
Zebra produced “El Cid,” a meticulously accurate but grand-scale Prime Video series
“Tenorio” takes a deep dive into the life of iconic literary character Don Juan Tenorio to explore how he transformed into the legendary ‘Latin Lover’ of yore .
“Memento Mori,” which has been shooting in the city of Valladolid, is based on a trilogy of novels by author César Pérez Gellida who hails from the town, said iZen’s Lara Lejarza.
Zebra Prods. is producing the show for Prime Video which plans to stream the series in Spain, Portugal and Andorra.
Filming has begun in the author’s hometown and will continue in the Canary Islands and the Community of Madrid where they...
Zebra produced “El Cid,” a meticulously accurate but grand-scale Prime Video series
“Tenorio” takes a deep dive into the life of iconic literary character Don Juan Tenorio to explore how he transformed into the legendary ‘Latin Lover’ of yore .
“Memento Mori,” which has been shooting in the city of Valladolid, is based on a trilogy of novels by author César Pérez Gellida who hails from the town, said iZen’s Lara Lejarza.
Zebra Prods. is producing the show for Prime Video which plans to stream the series in Spain, Portugal and Andorra.
Filming has begun in the author’s hometown and will continue in the Canary Islands and the Community of Madrid where they...
- 9/30/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
TV program “Insiders,” set up at Spain-based company iZen, has become Netflix’s first Spanish original reality show. The aim was to be innovative and, at the same time, recover the essence of old reality TV.
“Insiders” is produced by José Velasco, iZen president and founder, who years ago was behind the local version of “Big Brother,” where reality TV took off.
Velasco and Álvaro Díaz, entertainment director at Netflix Spain, talked about reality TV at last week’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment industry meeting in Toledo.
In “Insiders,” hosted by “Money Heist” star Najwa Nimri, 12 contestants think they are in the final stage of a casting call for a reality show about which they had no details. But the reality show has in fact already begun, without their knowing it. The winner took home a €100,000 prize.
“Insiders’” Season 1 launched on Oct. 21; Season 2 premiered on May 19.
“It was a challenge to...
“Insiders” is produced by José Velasco, iZen president and founder, who years ago was behind the local version of “Big Brother,” where reality TV took off.
Velasco and Álvaro Díaz, entertainment director at Netflix Spain, talked about reality TV at last week’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment industry meeting in Toledo.
In “Insiders,” hosted by “Money Heist” star Najwa Nimri, 12 contestants think they are in the final stage of a casting call for a reality show about which they had no details. But the reality show has in fact already begun, without their knowing it. The winner took home a €100,000 prize.
“Insiders’” Season 1 launched on Oct. 21; Season 2 premiered on May 19.
“It was a challenge to...
- 6/27/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Ask Jose Velasco, 60, what he thinks about the Conecta Fiction Honorary award he’s receiving on Thursday June 23 and his first response is, “Why?”
The self-effacing founder and president of powerhouse content producer iZen Group says he is grateful to those who decided to give it to him, “rightly or not.” “I guess it’s because I’ve been in this business for 35 years and have done everything from fiction to reality to game shows,” he muses, adding: “But if they think this will make me retire, they’re mistaken.”
“I guess I am of the generation of people in Spain who were trying the shape the country’s television landscape,” he notes. Indeed, Velasco founded and ran one of the pioneering entertainment giants of Spain, Globomedia. He later established Zeppelin TV as well as Diagonal TV and Linze Producciones, all of which formed part of Endemol, then owned by Telefonica Media.
The self-effacing founder and president of powerhouse content producer iZen Group says he is grateful to those who decided to give it to him, “rightly or not.” “I guess it’s because I’ve been in this business for 35 years and have done everything from fiction to reality to game shows,” he muses, adding: “But if they think this will make me retire, they’re mistaken.”
“I guess I am of the generation of people in Spain who were trying the shape the country’s television landscape,” he notes. Indeed, Velasco founded and ran one of the pioneering entertainment giants of Spain, Globomedia. He later established Zeppelin TV as well as Diagonal TV and Linze Producciones, all of which formed part of Endemol, then owned by Telefonica Media.
- 6/22/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Starring “Money Heist” and “Elite” star Jaime Llorente, Amazon’s “El Cid” hit the streaming platform worldwide on Dec. 18, weighing in as Spain’s first scripted Amazon Original and one of its biggest swings to date in continental Europe.
While Charlton Heston’s El Cid in the eponymous 1961 film was a product of the Cold War, an agent of Christendom battling invading aliens, Llorente’s Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, alias El Cid, is less glorious, more grounded and far truer to its age while interpreting events with modern-day political and gender sensibility. This is a medieval epic, but with attitude, and Spain setting the record straight.
Here are six takes on the five-part season 1, and a brief Q&a with co-creator José Velasco and producer Sara Fernandez-Velasco. (Warning: may contain spoilers)
The Dawn of Democracy
Driving to the heart of its drama, in an early episode one flash-forward, Llorente’s 20-year-old El Cid,...
While Charlton Heston’s El Cid in the eponymous 1961 film was a product of the Cold War, an agent of Christendom battling invading aliens, Llorente’s Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, alias El Cid, is less glorious, more grounded and far truer to its age while interpreting events with modern-day political and gender sensibility. This is a medieval epic, but with attitude, and Spain setting the record straight.
Here are six takes on the five-part season 1, and a brief Q&a with co-creator José Velasco and producer Sara Fernandez-Velasco. (Warning: may contain spoilers)
The Dawn of Democracy
Driving to the heart of its drama, in an early episode one flash-forward, Llorente’s 20-year-old El Cid,...
- 12/21/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — Amazon Prime Video has announced a slate of three new Spanish original series set for 2020, which will strengthen the streamer’s domestic catalog in the country. It also shared the first trailer for its second Spanish soccer docu-series “El corazón de Sergio Ramos” (The Heart of Sergio Ramos).
In “El Cid,” popular Spanish actor Jaime Lorente, a lead player in Netflix’s two biggest Spanish hits thus far “Money Heist” and “Elite,” will play Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in a series inspired by the legendary medieval war hero, whose deeds inspired one of the most important of medieval Spanish epic poems, “El Cantar de Mio Cid.”
“’El Cid’ will be a unique and ambitious series that requires a cast with incredible talent and agility,” said Georgia Brown, Amazon director of European Original series in a press release. “Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar is a fascinating figure, a true hero whose...
In “El Cid,” popular Spanish actor Jaime Lorente, a lead player in Netflix’s two biggest Spanish hits thus far “Money Heist” and “Elite,” will play Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in a series inspired by the legendary medieval war hero, whose deeds inspired one of the most important of medieval Spanish epic poems, “El Cantar de Mio Cid.”
“’El Cid’ will be a unique and ambitious series that requires a cast with incredible talent and agility,” said Georgia Brown, Amazon director of European Original series in a press release. “Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar is a fascinating figure, a true hero whose...
- 7/23/2019
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
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