The fifth and sixth days of LA Virtual Screenings 2021 gathered companies from all corners of the planet, who discussed about the various television models, synergies between business and the key region that are taking the global attention.
On Saturday 15 two key panels about streaming and the Latin American Studios have taken place: the first one was led by Blim TV (Mexico), MX Player (India) and oll TV (Ukraine) and moderated by Fabricio Ferrara, International Business Director, Prensario International, while the second was starred byCaracol TV (Colombia), Azteca Studios (Mexico) and ViacomCBSInternational Studios (VIS), and moderated by Nicolás Smirnoff, Managing Director, Prensario International.
Vanessa Rosas, COO at Mexican Blim TV summarized:‘Our SVOD has presence in 18 territories in Latin America, and a great positioning in the Mexican market, offering exclusive content in Spanish-language from Latin American content providers. That’s our main difference when competing with bigger, global OTTs. We are planning to expand in the digital business, by adding more original content (we’ve recently launched our firsts original movies) and launching this year an AVOD service’.
Mansi Shrivastav, SVP, content acquisitions, alliance & syndication, MX Player (India), explained: ‘Our AVOD service was strengthened for a little over a year, where we evidenced a growth seven times more than what we had been reporting in the countries where it was available, especially since mobile devices and in emerging markets. In addition to acquiring content, we are producing and distribution worldwide the content available on the service. We are moving from consolidating our user base and will eventually place greater emphasis on content production, while we plan the launch of an SVOD service before this year ends’.
Fyodor Grechaninov, Director of Strategy, Media Group Ukraine: ‘We started as a sports content app and responding to market needs, we diversified our offer to fiction and other contents. Recently, we started producing original titles for our platform, in alliance with local and foreign companies. Ukraine is an emerging player in the content market, so our strategy is based on offering a balance in content and an affordable service to the users’.
On the Latina American Studios panel, Patricia Jasin, VP of the recently launchedAzteca Estudios, underlined: ‘I have been representing the international content area for TV Azteca, and since we founded the studio, we have focused on the production of content in Spanish for our channels and for third parties, while we offer production services for third parties’.
Fernando Gastón, VP Content at VIS, added: ‘VIS resumed production in October last year and we intend to continue with our studio strategy.In turn, we are already working in original content in Spanish for Paramount +, one of them is the fiction series that emerged from our alliance with the Argentine award-winning director Juan Jose Campanella (The Secret in their Eyes), which will debut on the platform at the end of this year’.
Catalina Porto, executive manager of production, Caracol TV, completed: ‘This strategy of creating content for third parties, beyond just feeding our network, is a sign of the adaptability that the Latin market has. This model brings together good stories and good production values that can feed third parties as digital platforms’.
The protagonists on Sunday 16 were key digital players of the vibrant MENA region, co-organized with H. Consult, and the second with FRAPA. Moderated by Phil Gurin, Co-Chairman of the organization and president of The Gurin Company, he welcomed Hayley Babcock, FRAPA Advisory Board Member, and owner of Hayley Babcock Media Consulting, Carlotta Rossi Spencer, FRAPA Advisory Board Member and head of acquisitions, Banijay (UK) and Maria Grechishnikova, CEO, Star Media (Russia), who discussed about the formats globally and the present situation of rights protection.
Heba Korayem from H.Consultinitiated the session indicating key figures of the MENA market: ‘It is composed by 22 Arabic-speakingterritories receiing700 satellite TV channels, 15 regional OTTs, 20 Telecom IPTV Networks and hosting 100 production companies, whose buyers are fueling the growing demand for content in view of user growth and broadband penetration in some countries’.
Walid Finan, CEO TenTime, indicated: ‘We offer so many things that other platforms do not provide and we’re on demand. We have a variety of Arabic movies and music to offer ‘. He referred to its operation ‘the Netflix for the Middle East’.Nadine Samra is the Chief Business Officer of Wayyak, Indica Zee Entertainment’s VOD streaming app which went to SVOD in 2019, and recently signed a big content deal with Huawei in MENA. ‘In our efforts to give the Arabic audience the best experience, we have released the subscription package to view the content ad-free and enjoy multiple add-on benefits. Outside MENA and for the rest of the world, Weyyak is only available behind a paywall, ads free. We are looking to impact our business in a positive way through the subscription release’, she explained.
Abe Shady Aboul Naga, general manager at VIU, a Hong Kon-based OTT video streaming provider from Viu International Ltd, a PCCW Group Company, remarked: ‘Leading the regional team is tremendous, because it is a rather complicated market, but I think the strategy is in getting key alliances to prevail. Last year we had a partnership with the CIFF on the shorts and we wanted to push this partnership to the next level and do something bigger’.
Kamel Weiss, strategy business development director at GNAM / Spaxcetoon TV, concludedon the original children content, developed and produced in partnership with local companies: ‘We have collaborated with international studios to co-produce content. We plan to host a couple of creative workshops in the GCC to train people on character design, as many of them grew up watching Spacetoon‘.
