Amazon‘s streaming platform is increasing its investment in the young adult segment, a strategic line that originated in the Spanish market and is currently being replicated internationally. During the market sessions at Series Mania Forum, company executives detailed how the audiovisual adaptation of the Culpables franchise, authored by Mercedes Ron, served as the primary catalyst to establish a steady flow of productions aimed at this audience across multiple territories.
The reach of this literary saga, adapted by Pokeepsie Films, surpassed 100 million viewers globally, capturing a demographic that includes both teenagers and adult women. Nicole Morganti, Head of Originals for Southern Europe, explained that this viewership performance drove the development of a structured local catalog. Upcoming projects in Spain include further on-screen translations of Ron’s works, specifically the feature Dímelo bajito and the two installments of the Enfrentados saga, titled Marfil and Ébano.
This business model, heavily reliant on literary intellectual property and social media consumption trends, is being exported to other European markets. The company has projects underway such as Love Me, Love Me in Italy, Campus Drivers in France, and a British version of Culpa Mía. Furthermore, the German production Maxton Hall: The World Between Us quickly positioned itself among the platform’s most-watched content worldwide in 2024.
In an industrial landscape characterized by a general contraction in fiction demand, Thomas Dubois, Head of Originals for France and Japan, conveyed a message of corporate expansion, indicating that the platform is actively seeking to increase its volume of series. While coming-of-age dramas and exclusive boarding school settings set the current trend, Dubois clarified that the company’s operational goal is to innovate within the format and avoid saturating its schedule with traditional high school tropes. The executive also noted that reliance on literary franchises is not a strict rule, citing the French original film Tempête—a teenage survival story without prior source material—as an example.
This entire strategy of strengthening local-language content is unfolding under the recent direction of Nicole Clemens, who assumed the role of VP of International Originals following her tenure at Paramount Television Studios. This management phase is oriented toward prioritizing the serialized format, providing an executive vision that, according to the European leadership, focuses on direct collaboration with production companies, analytical script evaluation, and creative talent management.
