WarnerMedia OTT’s HBO Max has launched in 39 territories of Latin America & The Caribbean on June 29 as its first international roll out, followed by a dozen of European territories, starting with Nordics & Spain this fall, and continuing with Portugal & CEE in 2022.
In Latin America, the first territory launched after USA, Warner Bros., HBO and Turner are integrated through HBO Max, which offers 35,000 hours of content. Apart from iconic brands like Game of Thrones, series like Friends or Sex and the City, movies like Matrix, Batman and Superman franchises from DC Comics, it will bring 100 originals produced in Latin American within the next 18 months: 35 of them are already in production, with Amarres, coproduced with Dopamine (Mexico), being the first of its kind premiered on August 12.
Luis Durán, general manager of the Latin American operation, explains to Prensario: ‘The premises are quality and intensity. Our offer is fair for Latin America, because it has a lot of epic programming, combining our top brands, and all the targets are very well covered, adults and young people. There are 100 million households in the region and we are targeting all of them, not just the 10 million that today have OTTs’.
‘The pricing strategy is accurate, with local variations depending on the situation of each country, and a scale of options for the entry level: an area to test pilots as a first step, then take a free test for a week, and third with two paid options: the full package at USD 6 per month or a mobile version with selected content at USD 4 per month. Those who take a 12-month subscription receive a 30% discount’, he adds.
‘Aggregator partners are fundamental, especially in the first year of adoption, to reach quickly to more homes. We rely on the Warner Bros. alliance structure, we already started with partners in all countries. The largest are about 50, and the total park reaches more than 100 members. We have from panregional operators such as Direct TV or Telmex and Mercado Libre, to local players like Totalplay (Mexico), which will offer very attractive subscription promotions’.
‘Within the content offer, we have differentials such as football, including the rights of the UEFA Champions League or local leagues. This represents a great value, to watch the games from any place or device. At the beginning, we hope that the films will be seen a lot, with several first-line premieres that, due to the pandemic, have not been able to be released even in theaters. HBO Max will be the first access. And in series, beyond the most iconic, there are several jewels that can become cult, such as Chernobyl, Euphoria, etc. We have complemented the offer with material from third parties, such as a very good soap opera slate, which by natural flow we would not have had’.
‘Originals are course be a great arm for differentiation, first the Latin ones and also the global ones, from the USA and from different regions. Tomás Yankelevich, our CCO, and his team are working on 100 projects, generating about 40 in Brazil and the same number in Mexico, but also in Argentina, Colombia, Chile and others. We have more than 20 associated producers, being able to vary the ecosystems according to each initiative. I don’t want to talk a lot about the series that are coming, but for example I like Las Bravas a lot, which is about a women’s soccer team, it’s going to be a good news in the market’, considers Duran.
He completes: ‘One main goal is internal, and it is that we’ll achieve beyond the number of actions and initiatives an uniform work culture that transcends each project. And outwardly, that a good part of the 10 million homes with OTTs pick up HBO Max. The “virgin market” in the region is still big: if we grow from 10% to 20%, the current market would already double’.
The launch in two steps in Europe was announced during Series Mania. ‘I know there has been speculation of delays due to our massive launch in Latin American earlier but we will be launching in the Nordics + Spain this fall and then Portugal + CEE next year. The plan is of course to go global…but we will do that in a staggered approach. We’re looking into new market launches when appropriate when we think we have the good offer to bring consumers in market’, remarks Christina Sulebakk, general manager of HBO Max EMEA.
Priya Dogra, president of WarnerMedia EMEA and Asia (excluding China), added: ‘Europe is a huge priority for us. We now have USA and LatAm under our belt. We feel very good about those successes there and the growth that we’re seeing. Europe is a complicated market, but it’s an exciting one’.
Along with Sulebakk, the executives conclude: ‘We want to have more voices and more stories, as well as a very competitive pricing offer to consumers and very flexible way of accessing our products, both through D2C but also through our very established wholesale distribution partners in the region’.
